Electron dynamics in silver after ultrafast laser-excitation

When a silver sample is irradiated with an ultrashort laser pulse with a wavelength of 400 nm and 800 nm, at first only the electronic system is excited. They are driven out of equilibrium, i.e. they do not follow a Fermi-Dirac distribution directly after excitation. We calculate the transient distribution function with help of full Boltzmann collision integrals. We show the influence of laser parameters like wavelength and fluence on the initial electron nonequilibrium distribution, as well as on the thermalization process. We find an strong dependence of the excited electron distribution on characteristic features in the electronic density of states.