Landolt-Börnstein - Group III Condensed Matter

8.2.1 Introduction

Abstract

This chapter provides an introduction to photoemission and inverse photoemission of semiconductor. The basis of the photoemission experiment in the independent particle description is the absorption of a photon and the transfer of its total energy to an electron. The measurement of the photoelectron current as a function of Ekin (the photoemission spectrum) enables a set of photoelectron binding energies to be determined for the various initial states in the system under investigation. In turn, the binding energies can be equated with the one electron eigenvalues of the system Ei. Since excitation takes place from an occupied electron state to an empty one, the number of possible transitions depends on the availability of electronic states at the energies concerned. The photoemission spectrum thus contains features which relate to the density of both the initial and final states. Electrons incident upon a surface may transiently occupy empty electronic states of the solid. The radiative transition occurring when such an electron decays into another unoccupied state at lower energy forms the basis of inverse photoemission. The inelastic mean free path of electrons in material is illustrated. Surface Brillouin zones of fcc, bcc, and hcp surfaces are shown.

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About this content

Title
8.2.1 Introduction
Book Title
Interaction of Radiation with Surfaces and Electron Tunneling
In
8.2 Photoemission and inverse photoemission
Book DOI
10.1007/b51875
Chapter DOI
10.1007/10119615_18
Part of
Landolt-Börnstein - Group III Condensed Matter
Volume
24D
Editors
  • G. Chiarotti
Authors
  • A. M. Bradshaw
  • R. Hemmen
  • D. E. Ricken
  • Th. Schedel-Niedrig

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