451 research outputs found
Nearly Massless Electrons in the Silicon Interface with a Metal Film
We demonstrate the realization of nearly massless electrons in the most
widely used device material, silicon, at the interface with a metal film. Using
angle-resolved photoemission, we found that the surface band of a monolayer
lead film drives a hole band of the Si inversion layer formed at the interface
with the film to have nearly linear dispersion with an effective mass about 20
times lighter than bulk Si and comparable to graphene. The reduction of mass
can be accounted for by repulsive interaction between neighboring bands of the
metal film and Si substrate. Our result suggests a promising way to take
advantage of massless carriers in silicon-based thin-film devices, which can
also be applied for various other semiconductor devices.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review
Letter
Barrier formation at metal/organic interfaces: dipole formation and the Charge Neutrality Level
The barrier formation for metal/organic semiconductor interfaces is analyzed
within the Induced Density of Interface States (IDIS) model. Using weak
chemisorption theory, we calculate the induced density of states in the organic
energy gap and show that it is high enough to control the barrier formation. We
calculate the Charge Neutrality Levels of several organic molecules (PTCDA,
PTCBI and CBP) and the interface Fermi level for their contact with a Au(111)
surface. We find an excellent agreement with the experimental evidence and
conclude that the barrier formation is due to the charge transfer between the
metal and the states induced in the organic energy gap.Comment: 7 pages, Proceedings of ICFSI-9, Madrid, Spain (September 2003),
special issue of Applied Surface Science (in press
Surface versus bulk characterization of the electronic inhomogeneity in a VO_{2} film
We investigated the inhomogeneous electronic properties at the surface and
interior of VO_{2} thin films that exhibit a strong first-order metal-insulator
transition (MIT). Using the crystal structural change that accompanies a VO_{2}
MIT, we used bulk-sensitive X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements to estimate
the fraction of metallic volume p^{XRD} in our VO_{2} film. The temperature
dependence of the p was very closely correlated with the dc
conductivity near the MIT temperature, and fit the percolation theory
predictions quite well: (p - p_{c})^{t} with t = 2.00.1
and p_{c} = 0.160.01. This agreement demonstrates that in our VO
thin film, the MIT should occur during the percolation process. We also used
surface-sensitive scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) to investigate the
microscopic evolution of the MIT near the surface. Similar to the XRD results,
STS maps revealed a systematic decrease in the metallic phase as temperature
decreased. However, this rate of change was much slower than the rate observed
with XRD, indicating that the electronic inhomogeneity near the surface differs
greatly from that inside the film. We investigated several possible origins of
this discrepancy, and postulated that the variety in the strain states near the
surface plays an important role in the broad MIT observed using STS. We also
explored the possible involvement of such strain effects in other correlated
electron oxide systems with strong electron-lattice interactions.Comment: 27 pages and 7 figure
Symmetric Versus Nonsymmetric Structure of the Phosphorus Vacancy on InP(110)
The atomic and electronic structure of positively charged P vacancies on
InP(110) surfaces is determined by combining scanning tunneling microscopy,
photoelectron spectroscopy, and density-functional theory calculations. The
vacancy exhibits a nonsymmetric rebonded atomic configuration with a charge
transfer level 0.75+-0.1 eV above the valence band maximum. The scanning
tunneling microscopy (STM) images show only a time average of two degenerate
geometries, due to a thermal flip motion between the mirror configurations.
This leads to an apparently symmetric STM image, although the ground state
atomic structure is nonsymmetric.Comment: 5 pages including 3 figures. related publications can be found at
http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm
A new type of reconstruction on the InSb() surface determined by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction
The (3×3) reconstruction of the InSb( ) surface has been investigated by grazing incidence X-ray diffraction and scanning tunneling microscopy. The structure is characterized by 6-atom rings on top of a slightly buckled InSb top double layer. Two types of rings have been found, an elliptic ring consisting of 4 In and 2 Sb atoms and a trigonal ring with 3 In and 3 Sb atoms. The bond angles and lengths are consistent with the concept of rehybridization and depolarization which explains the reconstructions of the (111) and (110) surfaces
Energy-resolved electron-spin dynamics at surfaces of p-doped GaAs
Electron-spin relaxation at different surfaces of p-doped GaAs is
investigated by means of spin, time and energy resolved 2-photon photoemission.
These results are contrasted with bulk results obtained by time-resolved
Faraday rotation measurements as well as calculations of the Bir-Aronov-Pikus
spin-flip mechanism. Due to the reduced hole density in the band bending region
at the (100) surface the spin-relaxation time increases over two orders of
magnitude towards lower energies. At the flat-band (011) surface a constant
spin relaxation time in agreement with our measurements and calculations for
bulk GaAs is obtained.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Стабилизация движения робота по показаниям электронного компаса
Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy has been applied to polymer samples in order to investigate the possibility of using this method for the identification of different materials. The plasma emission spectra of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), polyethylene terephthylene (PET), and polypropylene (PP) have been studied. Spectral features have been measured - for example, the 725.7 nm chlorine line, the 486.13 mm H(?) line, and the 247.86 nm carbon line - whose evaluation with neural networks permits identification accuracies between 90 and 1 00 per cent, depending on polymer type
Dispersive resonance bands within the space charge layer of metal- semiconductor junction
Based on measurements of angle resolved photoemission, we report that in the
Pb/Ge(111)- \sqrt{3}x\sqrt{3} R30^\circ structure, in addition to three bands
resembling Ge heavy hole (HH), light hole (LH), and split off (SO) bulk band
edges, a fourth dispersive band resembling the non split off (NSO) band is
found near the surface zone center. While three Ge bulk-like bands get
distorted due to strong coupling between Pb and Ge, the NSO-like band gets
weaker and disappears for larger thickness of Pb, which, when combined with ab
initio calculations, indicates its localized nature within space charge layer.
Our results are clearly important for designing electronics involved with
metal-semiconductor contacts.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figures, Phys. Rev. B 81, 245406 (2010
Charge density waves and surface Mott insulators for adlayer structures on semiconductors: extended Hubbard modeling
Motivated by the recent experimental evidence of commensurate surface charge
density waves (CDW) in Pb/Ge(111) and Sn/Ge(111) sqrt{3}-adlayer structures, as
well as by the insulating states found on K/Si(111):B and SiC(0001), we have
investigated the role of electron-electron interactions, and also of
electron-phonon coupling, on the narrow surface state band originating from the
outer dangling bond orbitals of the surface. We model the sqrt{3} dangling bond
lattice by an extended two-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling on a
triangular lattice. We include an on-site Hubbard repulsion U and a
nearest-neighbor Coulomb interaction V, plus a long-ranged Coulomb tail. The
electron-phonon interaction is treated in the deformation potential
approximation. We have explored the phase diagram of this model including the
possibility of commensurate 3x3 phases, using mainly the Hartree-Fock
approximation. For U larger than the bandwidth we find a non-collinear
antiferromagnetic SDW insulator, possibly corresponding to the situation on the
SiC and K/Si surfaces. For U comparable or smaller, a rich phase diagram
arises, with several phases involving combinations of charge and
spin-density-waves (SDW), with or without a net magnetization. We find that
insulating, or partly metallic 3x3 CDW phases can be stabilized by two
different physical mechanisms. One is the inter-site repulsion V, that together
with electron-phonon coupling can lower the energy of a charge modulation. The
other is a novel magnetically-induced Fermi surface nesting, stabilizing a net
cell magnetization of 1/3, plus a collinear SDW, plus an associated weak CDW.
Comparison with available experimental evidence, and also with first-principle
calculations is made.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figure
Spin- and energy relaxation of hot electrons at GaAs surfaces
The mechanisms for spin relaxation in semiconductors are reviewed, and the
mechanism prevalent in p-doped semiconductors, namely spin relaxation due to
the electron-hole exchange interaction, is presented in some depth. It is shown
that the solution of Boltzmann-type kinetic equations allows one to obtain
quantitative results for spin relaxation in semiconductors that go beyond the
original Bir-Aronov-Pikus relaxation-rate approximation. Experimental results
using surface sensitive two-photon photoemission techniques show that the spin
relaxation-time of electrons in p-doped GaAs at a semiconductor/metal surface
is several times longer than the corresponding bulk spin relaxation-times. A
theoretical explanation of these results in terms of the reduced density of
holes in the band-bending region at the surface is presented.Comment: 33 pages, 12 figures; earlier submission replaced by corrected and
expanded version; eps figures now included in the tex
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