Lifetimes of excited electrons in Fe and Ni: first-principles GW and the T-matrix theory

We present the results of an ab initio calculation of excited electron lifetimes in ferromagnetic materials which incorporates non-spin-flip and spin-flip processes within GW and T-matrix approaches. The method we develop is applied to low-energy electron excitations in Fe and Ni. It is found that t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPhysical review letters Vol. 93; no. 9; p. 096401
Main Authors Zhukov, V P, Chulkov, E V, Echenique, P M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 27.08.2004
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Summary:We present the results of an ab initio calculation of excited electron lifetimes in ferromagnetic materials which incorporates non-spin-flip and spin-flip processes within GW and T-matrix approaches. The method we develop is applied to low-energy electron excitations in Fe and Ni. It is found that the spin-wave generation in Fe essentially reduces the lifetimes of the spin-minority d states whereas the free-electron-like spin-minority states and all the spin-majority states are affected much less. The influence of spin-flip scattering on the lifetimes in Ni appears to be weak. The T-matrix non-spin-flip processes are important for the lifetimes of excited spin-minority states.
ISSN:0031-9007
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.096401