Measuring the photoelectron emission delay in the molecular frame

How long does it take to emit an electron from an atom? This question has intrigued scientists for decades. As such emission times are in the attosecond regime, the advent of attosecond metrology using ultrashort and intense lasers has re-triggered strong interest on the topic from an experimental standpoint. Here, we present an approach to measure such emission delays, which does not require attosecond light pulses, and works without the presence of superimposed infrared laser fields. We instead extract the emission delay from the interference pattern generated as the emitted photoelectron is diffracted by the parent ion’s potential. Targeting core electrons in CO, we measured a 2d map of photoelectron emission delays in the molecular frame over a wide range of electron energies. The emission times depend drastically on the photoelectrons’ emission directions in the molecular frame and exhibit characteristic changes along the shape resonance of the molecule.

Temperature-Dependent Broadening of the Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectrum of Au(110)

To determine the thermodynamic temperature of a solid surface from the electron energy distribution measured by photoelectron spectroscopy, it is necessary to accurately evaluate the energy broadening of the photoelectron spectrum and investigate its temperature dependence. Broadening functions in the photoelectron spectrum of Au(110)’s surface near the Fermi level were estimated successfully using the relationship between the Fourier transform and the convolution integral. The Fourier transform could simultaneously reduce the noise of the spectrum when the broadening function was derived. The derived function was in the form of a Gaussian, whose width depended on the thermodynamic temperature of the sample and became broader at higher temperatures. The results contribute to improve accuracy of the determination of thermodynamic temperature from the photoelectron spectrum and provide useful information on the temperature dependence of electron scattering in photoelectron emission processes.

Structurally Driven Environmental Degradation of Friction in MoS2 Films

We report an investigation of the friction mechanisms of MoS2 thin films under changing environments and contact conditions using a variety of computational and experimental techniques. Molecular dynamics simulations were used to study the effects of water and molecular oxygen on friction and bonding of MoS2 lamellae during initial sliding. Characterization via photoelectron emission microscopy (PEEM) and Kelvin probe force microscopy (KPFM) were used to determine work function changes in shear modified material within the top few nanometers of MoS2 wear scars. The work function was shown to change with contact conditions and environment, and shown by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and literature reports to be correlated with lamellae size and thickness of the basally oriented surface layer. Results from nanoscale simulations and macroscale experiments suggest that the evolution of the friction behavior of MoS2 is linked primarily to the formation or inhibition of a basally oriented, molecularly thin surface film with long-range order.