All-electron local density functional study of metallic monolayers. I. Alkali metals

Applications of time-domain spectroscopy to electron-phonon coupling dynamics at surfaces

Photochemistry is one of the most important branches in chemistry to promote and control chemical reactions. In particular, there has been growing interest in photoinduced processes at solid surfaces and interfaces with liquids such as water for developing efficient solar energy conversion. For example, photoinduced charge transfer between adsorbates and semiconductor substrates at the surfaces of metal oxides induced by photogenerated holes and electrons is a core process in photovoltaics and photocatalysis. In these photoinduced processes, electron-phonon coupling plays a central role. This paper describes how time-domain spectroscopy is applied to elucidate electron-phonon coupling dynamics at metal and semiconductor surfaces. Because nuclear dynamics induced by electronic excitation through electron-phonon coupling take place in the femtosecond time domain, the pump-and-probe method with ultrashort pulses used in time-domain spectroscopy is a natural choice for elucidating the electron-phonon coupling at metal and semiconductor surfaces. Starting with a phenomenological theory of coherent phonons generated by impulsive electronic excitation, this paper describes a couple of illustrative examples of the applications of linear and nonlinear time-domain spectroscopy to a simple adsorption system, alkali metal on Cu(111), and more complex photocatalyst systems.

Electron-stimulated desorption of cesium atoms from cesium layers adsorbed on gold-covered tungsten

The electron-stimulated desorption (ESD) yields and energy distributions (ED) for neutral cesium atoms have been measured from cesium layers adsorbed on a gold-covered tungsten surface as a function of electron energy, gold film thickness, cesium coverage and substrate temperature. The measurements have been carried out using a time-of-flight method and surface ionization detector in the temperature range 160-300 K. A measurable ESD yield for Cs atoms is observed only after deposition of more than one monolayer of gold and cesium on a tungsten surface at a temperature T = 300 K, which is accompanied by the formation of a CsAu semiconductor film covered with a cesium atom monolayer. The Cs atom ESD yield as a function of incident electron energy has a resonant character and consists of two peaks, the appearance of which depends on both electron energy and substrate temperature. The first peak has an appearance threshold at an electron energy of 57 eV and a substrate temperature of 300 K that is due to Au 5p3/2 core level excitation in the substrate. The second peak appears at an electron energy of 24 eV and a substrate temperature of 160 K. It is associated with a Cs 5s core level excitation in the Cs adsorbed layer. The Au 5p3/2 level excitation corresponds to a single broad peak in the ED with a maximum at a kinetic energy of 0.45 eV at a substrate temperature T = 300 K, which is split into two peaks with maxima at kinetic energies of 0.36 and 0.45 eV at a substrate temperature of 160 K, associated with different Cs atom ESD channels. The Cs 5s level excitation leads to an ED for Cs atoms with a maximum at a kinetic energy of ∼ 0.57 eV which exists only at T < 240 K and low Cs concentrations. The mechanisms for all the Cs atom ESD channels are proposed and compared with the Na atom ESD channels in the Na-Au-W system.