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Updated: Feb 3, 2026

Microcrystal Electron Diffraction of Small Molecules
Published on: March 15, 2021
Determination of the electron-lattice coupling strength of copper with ultrafast MeV electron diffraction
M Z Mo1, V Becker2, B K Ofori-Okai1
1SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, California 94025, USA.
Abstract:
Electron-lattice coupling strength governs the energy transfer between electrons and the lattice and is important for understanding the material behavior under highly non-equilibrium conditions. Here we report the results of employing time-resolved electron diffraction at MeV energies to directly study the electron-lattice coupling strength in 40-nm-thick polycrystalline copper excited by femtosecond optical lasers. The temporal evolution of lattice temperature at various pump fluence conditions were obtained from the measurements of the Debye-Waller decay of multiple diffraction peaks. We observed the temperature dependence of the electron-lattice relaxation time which is a result of the temperature dependence of electron heat capacity. Comparison with two-temperature model simulations reveals an electron-lattice coupling strength of (0.9 ± 0.1) × 1017 W/m3/K for copper.
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