Progress in Surface Science最新文献

Graphene, a single atomic layer of graphite, has been the focus of recent intensive studies due to its novel electronic and structural properties. Metals grown on graphene also have been of interest because of their potential use as metal contacts in graphene devices, for spintronics applications, and for catalysis. All of these applications require good understanding and control of the metal growth morphology, which in part reflects the strength of the metal–graphene bond. Also of importance is whether the interaction between graphene and metal is sufficiently strong to modify the electronic structure of graphene. In this review, we will discuss recent experimental and computational studies related to deposition of metals on graphene supported on various substrates (SiC, SiO₂, and hexagonal close-packed metal surfaces). Of specific interest are the metal–graphene interactions (adsorption energies and diffusion barriers of metal adatoms), and the crystal structures and thermal stability of the metal nanoclusters.

Interfaces are the birthplace of a multitude of fascinating discoveries in fundamental science, and have enabled modern electronic devices, from transistors, to lasers, capacitors or solar cells. These interfaces between bulk materials are always bi-dimensional (2D) ‘surfaces’. However the advent of graphene and other 2D crystals opened up a world of possibilities, as in this case the interfaces become one-dimensional (1D) lines. Although the properties of 1D nanoribbons have been extensively discussed in the last few years, 1D interfaces within infinite 2D systems had remained mostly unexplored until very recently. These include grain boundaries in polycrystalline samples, or interfaces in hybrid 2D sheets composed by segregated domains of different materials (as for example graphene/BN hybrids, or chemically different transition metal dichalcogenides). As for their 2D counterparts, some of these 1D interfaces exhibit polar characteristics, and can give rise to fascinating new physical properties. Here, recent experimental discoveries and theoretical predictions on the polar discontinuities that arise at these 1D interfaces will be reviewed, and the perspectives of this new research topic, discussed.

The phase transition of VO₂ from a monoclinic insulator to a rutile metal, which occurs thermally at $T_{\text{C}}$ = 340 K, can also be driven by strong photoexcitation. The ultrafast dynamics during this photoinduced phase transition (PIPT) have attracted great scientific attention for decades, as this approach promises to answer the question of whether the insulator-to-metal (IMT) transition is caused by electronic or crystallographic processes through disentanglement of the different contributions in the time domain. We review our recent results achieved by femtosecond time-resolved photoelectron, optical, and coherent phonon spectroscopy and discuss them within the framework of a selection of latest, complementary studies of the ultrafast PIPT in VO₂. We show that the population change of electrons and holes caused by photoexcitation launches a highly non-equilibrium plasma phase characterized by enhanced screening due to quasi-free carriers and followed by two branches of non-equilibrium dynamics: (i) an instantaneous (within the time resolution) collapse of the insulating gap that precedes charge carrier relaxation and significant ionic motion and (ii) an instantaneous lattice potential symmetry change that represents the onset of the crystallographic phase transition through ionic motion on longer timescales. We discuss the interconnection between these two non-thermal pathways with particular focus on the meaning of the critical fluence of the PIPT in different types of experiments. Based on this, we conclude that the PIPT threshold identified in optical experiments is most probably determined by the excitation density required to drive the lattice potential change rather than the IMT. These considerations suggest that the IMT can be driven by weaker excitation, predicting a transiently metallic, monoclinic state of VO₂ that is not stabilized by the non-thermal structural transition and, thus, decays on ultrafast timescales.

Hydrogen(H)-bond dynamics are involved in many elementary processes in chemistry and biology. Because of its fundamental importance, a variety of experimental and theoretical approaches have been employed to study the dynamics in gas, liquid, solid phases, and their interfaces. This review describes the recent progress of direct observation and control of H-bond dynamics in several model systems on a metal surface by using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). General aspects of H-bond dynamics and the experimental methods are briefly described in chapter 1 and 2. In the subsequent four chapters, I present direct observation of an H-bond exchange reaction within a single water dimer (chapter 3), a symmetric H bond (chapter 4) and H-atom relay reactions (chapter 5) within water–hydroxyl complexes, and an intramolecular H-atom transfer reaction (tautomerization) within a single porphycene molecule (chapter 6). These results provide novel microscopic insights into H-bond dynamics at the single-molecule level, and highlight significant impact on the process from quantum effects, namely tunneling and zero-point vibration, resulting from the small mass of H atom. Additionally, local environmental effect on H-bond dynamics is also examined by using atom/molecule manipulation with the STM.

Nanostructure formation by single slow highly charged ion impacts can be associated with high density of electronic excitations at the impact points of the ions. Experimental results show that depending on the target material these electronic excitations may lead to very large desorption yields in the order of a few 1000 atoms per ion or the formation of nanohillocks at the impact site. Even in ultra-thin insulating membranes the formation of nanometer sized pores is observed after ion impact. In this paper, we show recent results on nanostructure formation by highly charged ions and compare them to structures and defects observed after intense electron and light ion irradiation of ionic crystals and graphene. Additional data on energy loss, charge exchange and secondary electron emission of highly charged ions clearly show that the ion charge dominates the defect formation at the surface.

We present an ab initio method to calculate elastic quantum transport at the nanoscale. The method is based on a combination of density functional theory using plane wave nonlocal pseudopotentials and the use of auxiliary periodic boundary conditions to obtain the scattering states. The method can be applied to any applied bias voltage and the charge density and potential profile can either be calculated self-consistently, or using an approximated self-consistent field (SCF) approach. Based on the scattering states one can straightforwardly calculate the transmission coefficients and the corresponding electronic current. The overall scheme allows us to obtain accurate and numerically stable solutions for the elastic transport, with a computational time similar to that of a ground state calculation. This method is particularly suitable for calculations of tunneling currents through vacuum, that some of the nonequilibrium Greens function (NEGF) approaches based on atomic basis sets might have difficulty to deal with. Several examples are provided using this method from electron tunneling, to molecular electronics, to electronic devices: (i) On a Au nanojunction, the tunneling current dependence on the electrode–electrode distance is investigated. (ii) The tunneling through field emission resonances (FERs) is studied via an accurate description of the surface vacuum states. (iii) Based on quantum transport calculations, we have designed a molecular conformational switch, which can turn on and off a molecular junction by applying a perpendicular electric field. (iv) Finally, we have used the method to simulate tunnel field-effect transistors (TFETs) based on two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs), where we have studied the performance and scaling limits of such nanodevices and proposed atomic doping to enhance the transistor performance.

This review reports on experimental and theoretical results on the inelastic decay of optically excited volume electrons in different types of metals, including simple metals (Al), noble metals (Au, Ag, Cu), transition metals (Ta, Mo, Rh, Co, Fe, Ni) and rare earth metals (Gd, Tb, Yb, La). The comparison of the different materials and material classes provides particular insight into the relevance of the localization and delocalization of electronic states for inelastic carrier scattering processes. The discussion of the data illustrates furthermore the capabilities and limitations of the time-resolved two-photon photoemission technique as well as current theoretical approaches in analyzing and determining inelastic lifetimes of excited electrons.

We review several representative experimental results of action spectroscopy (AS) of single molecules on metal surfaces using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) by M. Kawai’s group over last decade. The experimental procedures to observe STM-AS are described. A brief description of a low-temperature STM and experimental setup are followed by key experimental techniques of how to determine an onset bias voltage of a reaction and how to measure a current change associated with reactions and finally how to observe AS for single molecule reactions. The experimental results are presented for vibrationally mediated chemical transformation of trans-2-butene to 1.3-butadiene molecule and rotational motion of a single cis-2-butene molecule among four equivalent orientations on Pd(1 1 0). The AS obtained from the motion clearly detects more vibrational modes than inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy with an STM. AS is demonstrated as a useful and novel single molecule vibrational spectroscopy. The AS for a lateral hopping of water dimer on Pt(1 1 1) is presented as an example of novelty. Several distinct vibrational modes are detected as the thresholds in the AS. The assignment of the vibrational modes determined from the analysis of the AS is made from a view of the adsorption geometry of hydrogen-bond donor or acceptor molecules in water dimer.

A generic theory of STM-AS, i.e., a reaction rate or yield as a function of bias voltage, is presented using a single adsorbate resonance model for single molecule reactions induced by the inelastic tunneling current. Formulas for the reaction rate $R\left(V\right)$ and $Y\left(V\right)$, i.e., reaction yield per electron $Y\left(V\right)=\mathrm{eR}\left(V\right)/I$ are derived. It provides a versatile framework to analyze any vibrationally mediated reactions of single adsorbates on metal surfaces. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate generic features of the vibrational generation rate and $Y\left(V\right)$ at different levels of approximations and to show how the effective broadening of the vibrational density of states (as described by Gaussian or Lorentzian functions) manifest themselves in $Y\left(V\right)$ near the threshold bias voltage corresponding to a vibrational excitation responsible for reactions. A prefactor of $Y\left(V\right)$ is explicitly derived for various types of elementary processes. Our generic formula of