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Applications of Time‐Domain Spectroscopy to Electron–Phonon Coupling Dynamics at Surfaces
Author(s) -
Matsumoto Yoshiyasu
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
the chemical record
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.61
H-Index - 78
eISSN - 1528-0691
pISSN - 1527-8999
DOI - 10.1002/tcr.201402030
Subject(s) - coupling (piping) , phonon , dynamics (music) , spectroscopy , electron , physics , time domain , condensed matter physics , domain (mathematical analysis) , materials science , computer science , quantum mechanics , mathematics , metallurgy , mathematical analysis , acoustics , computer vision
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 C u(111), and more complex photocatalyst systems.