Electron‐electron relaxation in disordered interacting systems

Abstract

We study the relaxation of a non‐equilibrium carrier distribution under the influence of the electron‐electron interaction in the presence of disorder. Based on the Anderson model, our Hamiltonian is composed from a single particle part including the disorder and a two‐particle part accounting for the Coulomb interaction. We apply the equation‐of‐motion approach for the density matrix, which provides a fully microscopic description of the relaxation. Our results show that the nonequilibrium distribution in this closed and internally interacting system relaxes exponentially fast during the initial dynamics. This fast relaxation can be described by a phenomenological damping rate. The total single particle energy decreases in the redistribution process, keeping the total energy of the system fixed. It turns out that the relaxation rate decreases with increasing disorder. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)