Two photon photoemission of deposited silver clusters

Abstract

We use time resolved two photon photoemission to study the stability of size selected silver clusters deposited onto highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) substrates. Size-selected Agn+ clusters (n=2-9) are deposited at low coverage onto HOPG surfaces at liquid nitrogen temperatures. After deposition, the samples are irradiated by a series of ultrashort laser pulse pairs. Photoelectrons created by two photon photoemission are collected in a magnetic bottle type time-of-flight photoelectron spectrometer. Their kinetic energy distribution is recorded as a function of the delay time between subsequent light pulses. With the exception of Ag3 the size dependence of the photoelectron spectra reveals a pronounced odd/even effect, which is well known for gas phase silver clusters. This indicates that the deposited clusters retain their size and identity on the sample. The lifetime of the photoexcitation rises with cluster size. This is attributed to an increasing electronic density of states for larger clusters.