The electronic properties of the Cs/GaAs(100) interface and the formation of metastable Cs clusters

Abstract

The method of threshold photoemission spectroscopy is used to investigate the electronic properties of the ultrafine gallium-enriched Cs/GaAs(100) interface. The rearrangement of the spectrum of surface photo-emission as a function of Cs coating, as well as the temperature dependence of the spectrum, enable one to identify two phases of adsorption with strong (Cs-Ga) and weak (Cs-Cs) bonds. In the first phase of adsorption with the coating of approximately 0.3 monolayers, two surface bands are detected which are due to the local interaction of cesium adatoms with gallium dimers. It is found that the transition from the first to the second phase of adsorption occurs with the Cs coating of approximately 0.7 monolayers, which corresponds to the saturation of all dangling bonds of gallium on the gallium-enriched GaAs(100) surface. In the second phase of adsorption with the coating of more than 0.7 monolayers, a number of additional photoemission singularities are observed in the spectra, whose emergence is associated with the formation of metastable Cs formations. Photoemission peaks at 1.9 and 2.17 eV may be associated with the excitation of quasi-two-and/or quasi-three-dimensional Cs clusters, and the peaks at 2.05, 2.4, and 2.78 eV may be associated with the excitation of an interface plasmon and of surface and bulk Cs plasmons, respectively.