2023 Departmental Poster Competition

The Two Temperature Model predicts temporal and spatial electron and lattice temperatures by solving a coupled set of differential equations. This understanding of the electronic and lattice temperature is necessary for understanding carrier dynamics. In our simulation, we use a Python library called NTMpy; we can then  predict the temperature of the electronic system and the lattice of the material of interest as well as the substrate by using variables such as, the depth of the material, the heat capacity, specific heat, coupling term between the electronic system and the lattice, the temporal profile of the incoming energy source, fluence and polarization. The purpose of using this simulation is to show electron scattering processes, by spectroscopy, in the femtosecond to picosecond regime, often times called Ultrafast Spectroscopy. The combination of the simulation with lab data allows us to not only study the scattering processes happening, but also the time of thermalization. In Ferromagnetic Nickel we were able to accurately reproduce lab data and show that the electronic system reaches temperatures on the order of 700K and thermalizes within the range of 10-15 ps.