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

Phys Rev Lett. 2004 Aug 27;93(9):096401. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.096401. Epub 2004 Aug 23.

Abstract

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.