The change of thermal properties under the exposure to fs-laser pulses

Abstract

We start with a short introduction of some newer thermodynamical approaches to the description of nonequilibrium processes related to the interaction of short laser pulses with matter. Then we shall use the example of electronic thermal conductivity to show why the equations usually derived in standard solid state theory have to be reconsidered. This is mandated by the loss of local thermal equilibrium, the nonstationarity, and the enhanced contribution from electron-electron scattering. Based on Boltzmann’s equation we derive an expression for the thermal conductivity with new qualitative and quantitative properties. These results are supported by comparison with experiments.