The transfer of energy between electrons and ions in solids

TL;DR

This review discusses the mechanisms and theoretical methods for energy transfer between electrons and ions in solids, highlighting experimental phenomena and computational approaches for non-equilibrium systems.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of experimental observations and compares various theoretical techniques for modeling electron-ion energy exchange in complex condensed matter systems.

Findings

Survey of experimental phenomena related to electron-ion energy transfer

Comparison of perturbative and molecular dynamics methods

Evaluation of the strengths and limitations of different theoretical approaches

Abstract

In this review we consider those processes in condensed matter that involve the irreversible flow of energy between electrons and nuclei that follows from a system being taken out of equilibrium. We survey some of the more important experimental phenomena associated with these processes, followed by a number of theoretical techniques for studying them. The techniques considered are those that can be applied to systems containing many non-equivalent atoms. They include both perturbative approaches (Fermi's Golden Rule, and non-equilibrium Green's functions) and molecular dynamics based (the Ehrenfest approximation, surface hopping, semi-classical gaussian wavefunction methods and correlated electron-ion dynamics). These methods are described and characterised, with indications of their relative merits.