TWO-TEMPERATURE MODEL OF NONEQUILIBRIUM ELECTRON RELAXATION: A REVIEW

The present paper is a review of the phenomena related to nonequilibrium electron relaxation in bulk and nano-scale metallic samples. The workable Two-Temperature Model (TTM) based on Boltzmann-Bloch-Peierls kinetic equation has been applied to study the ultra-fast (femto-second) electronic relaxation in various metallic systems. The advent of new ultra-fast (femto-second) laser technology and pump-probe spectroscopy has produced wealth of new results for micro- and nano-scale electronic technology. The aim of this paper is to clarify the TTM, conditions of its validity and nonvalidity, its modifications for nano-systems, to sum-up the progress, and to point out open problems in this field. We also give a phenomenological integro-differential equation for the kinetics of nondegenerate electrons that goes beyond the TTM.