Influence of Inter- and Intraband Transitions to Electron Temperature Decay in Noble Metals After Short-Pulsed Laser Heating

This work examines the effects of photonically induced interband excitations from the d-band to states at the Fermi energy on the electron temperature decay in noble metals. The change in the electron population in the d-band and the conduction band causes a change in electron heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling factor. In noble metals, due to the large d-band to Fermi energy separation, the contributions to electron heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling factor of intra- and interband transitions can be separated. The two temperature model describing electron-phonon heat transfer after short-pulsed laser heating is solved using the expressions for heat capacity and electron-phonon coupling factor after intra- and interband excitations, and the predicted electron temperature change of the intra- and interband excited electrons are examined. A critical fluence value is defined that represents the absorbed fluence needed to fill all available states at a given photon energy above the Fermi level. At high absorbed laser fluences and pulse energies greater than the interband transition threshold, the interband and intraband contributions to thermophysical properties differ and are shown to affect temporal electron temperature profiles.