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Description
When a metal is irradiated with an ultrashort optical laser pulse, the electrons become excited, disturbing the electron distribution into a state far from equilibrium. The subsequent relaxation dynamics determine how the absorbed energy is redistributed within the electronic system and transferred to the lattice, making electron thermalization a key process in ultrafast laser-matter interaction.
In this work, we focus on electron-electron scattering which drives the electrons toward a hot Fermi distribution. We derive the full Boltzmann collision integral in the random-k approximation to calculate the temporal evolution of the electron energy distribution.
Furthermore, we examine to what extent these dynamics can be reproduced by the numerically simpler relaxation-time approach, considering both a constant relaxation time and an energy-dependent relaxation time based on Fermi-liquid theory.
Our results provide insights into the microscopic mechanisms that govern ultrafast thermalization and highlight the advantages and limitations of simplified scattering models.
