2013/05/15 by K. Carva, M. Battiato, D. Legut +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.mes-hall #cond-mat.mtrl-sci
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.87.184425
14 pages, 8 figures, to appear in PRB
arxiv created 2013/05/15 · arxiv updated 2015/06/15
We report a computational theoretical investigation of electron spin-flip scattering induced by the electron-phonon interaction in the transition-metal ferromagnets bcc Fe, fcc Co and fcc Ni. The Elliott-Yafet electron-phonon spin-flip scattering is computed from first-principles, employing a generalized spin-flip Eliashberg function as well as ab initio computed phonon dispersions. Aiming at investigating the amount of electron-phonon mediated demagnetization in femtosecond laser-excited ferromagnets, the formalism is extended to treat laser-created thermalized as well as nonequilibrium, nonthermal hot electron distributions. Using the developed formalism we compute the phonon-induced spin lifetimes of hot electrons in Fe, Co, and Ni. The electron-phonon mediated demagnetization rate is evaluated for laser-created thermalized and nonequilibrium electron distributions. Nonthermal distributions are found to lead to a stronger demagnetization rate than hot, thermalized distributions, yet their demagnetizing effect is not enough to explain the experimentally observed demagnetization occurring in the subpicosecond regime.