Relaxation of Photoexcited Electrons at a Nanostructured Si(111) Surface

Abstract

Relaxation pathways of photoinduced electronic redistribution at nanostructured semiconductor surfaces are obtained from time-dependent density matrix and ab initio electronic structure methods, giving electronic changes in energy and space over time. They are applied to a Ag cluster on a Si(111) surface, initially photoexcited by a short pulse, and show that the Ag cluster adds surface-localized states that enhance electron transfer. Results on the time evolution of population density distributions in energy and in space, for valence and conduction bands, explore the energy band landscape of a Si slab, with various relaxation pathways ending up in a charge-separated state, with a hole in the Si slab and an electron in the adsorbed Ag cluster. Calculated electronic relaxation times for Si(111)/H are of the same order as experimental values for similar semiconductor systems.