Fig. 4: Differences in the dielectric function of the non-thermalized and thermalized layers and the corresponding differences in the electron occupancies.

a Retrieved (set of dotted curves) and simulated (set of solid curves) differences between the dielectric function of the non-thermalized top layer (NT) and the thermalized part (T) of the gold film and (b) the corresponding changes in the electron occupancies above Fermi-level. The inset shows Δf(E) in the whole affected energy range. For comparison, the difference of two Fermi-Dirac distributions belonging to ΔT= 275 K is presented with a dash-dotted line.