Relaxation Time

Name:
Relaxation Time
Detailed information:
A measure of the rate at which a disequilibrium distribution decays toward an equilibrium distribution. The electron relaxation time in a metal, for example, describes the time required for a disequilibrium distribution of electron momenta (e.g., in a flowing current) to decay toward equilibrium in the absence of an ongoing driving force and can be interpreted as the mean time between scattering events for a given electron.