Fig. 2: Dynamics of nonequilibrium electrons after photoexcitation with hv = 2 eV.
a The total number of nonequilibrium electrons versus time for three different values of electron–electron (e–e) scattering strengths, \(\gamma _{ep}/\beta _{ee} \approx 0.25\) (realistic e–e), 0.05 (strong e–e), and 0 (infinite e–e). For the case of infinitely strong electron–electron scattering, the initial distribution evolves instantaneously into a thermal distribution, which increases the number of hot electrons by a factor of ~16. The inset illustrates the cascade dynamics of nonequilibrium electrons, e, and nonequilibrium holes, h. b The energy distribution of excitations for the case of \(\gamma _{{\mathrm{ep}}}/\beta _{{\mathrm{ee}}}\,\approx\,0.25\). Each band represents the number of excitations in a specific energy range, e.g., the number of excitations with energy greater than 50% of hv for the top most dark green band. τH is the time-scale that high energy electronic states remain occupied. τE is the time-scale for energy transfer between the electronic subsystem and lattice.
