Cascade multiplication of strongly non-equilibrium charge carriers in metals by low energy electron excitation

The steady-state distribution function of the energies of non-equilibrium electrons and holes formed as a result of a cascade of electron-electron collisions in the presence of a primary electron flux is found by solving the linearized transport equation in the isotropic scattering approximation. The distributions obtained in this way include dependences on the energy of primary electrons and on the characteristics of the medium. Near the Fermi level they have a singularity and are close to a power law far from this level. A study is made of the possibility of deriving distributions for crystals with a complex energy band structure (in particular, of tungsten).