Theoretical determination of electronic lifetimes in metals

For a variety of different fields in condensed matter physics it is important to understand the dynamics of excited electrons of bulk and surface states. In this article the results of first-principles computations for the lifetime of excited electrons in various metals are presented. In addition to crystalline systems also calculations of the electronic lifetimes in surface states of these materials are discussed. Preceding is a section in which the general theory is presented needed to calculate the lifetime of excited one-particle states. The method of choice is many-body perturbation theory using the GW approximation for the electronic self-energy. The key equations are summarized and a physical interpretation is given. This part is supplemented by the appendix in which the equations actually used in the calculations are presented in more detail.