Energy loss from warm electrons in a thin alloy film

Abstract

By using the technique of electron heating the authors have measured the energy loss lifetime from electron in thin Au₆₀Pd₄₀ films over the temperature range 1-6K. They have analysed the results at lattice temperatures up to 3K and have shown them to be consistent with electron-acoustic-phonon scattering in the regime where the phonon wavelength is of the order of the elastic mean free path of the electron. The energy loss diffusion length obtained of l_epsilon approximately=3.8 mu m is approximately 100 times greater than the film thickness suggesting a high degree of elastic scattering at the boundaries of the film.