Hot electrons in low-dimensional phonon systems
Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics
2009-11-11 v1 Materials Science
Abstract
A simple bulk model of electron-phonon coupling in metals has been surprisingly successful in explaining experiments on metal films that actually involve surface- or other low-dimensional phonons. However, by an exact application of this standard model to a semi-infinite substrate with a free surface, making use of the actual vibrational modes of the substrate, we show that such agreement is fortuitous, and that the model actually predicts a low-temperature crossover from the familiar T^5 temperature dependence to a stronger T^6 log T scaling. Comparison with existing experiments suggests a widespread breakdown of the standard model of electron-phonon thermalization in metals.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0503379,
title = {Hot electrons in low-dimensional phonon systems},
author = {S. -X. Qu and A. N. Cleland and M. R. Geller},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0503379},
year = {2009}
}