Electronic states of the C₆H₆/Cu{111} system: Energetics, femtosecond dynamics, and adsorption morphology

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Two-photon-photoemission (2PPE) spectroscopy is employed to characterize electronic states of a bilayer C₆H₆/Cu{111} system at 85 K. The unoccupied benzene ^* e_2u state is observed with a binding energy of 4.6 eV above the Fermi level. This result agrees with inverse-photoemission (IPE) data and provides a case where the determination of the binding energy is identical for 2PPE and IPE. The ^* e_2u state is assigned in the 2PPE scheme as a final state which is the first observed final state in 2PPE of adsorbate-surface systems. The dependence of the electron dynamics on the morphology of an incomplete adsorption layer is also investigated. Two (n = 1)-like image potential states A and B are observed which presumably originate from two different C₆H₆ adsorption geometries in the bilayer regime. The two image states A and B are characterized by electron effective masses of 1.1 and 1.9 m_e, binding energies of 3.30 and 3.45 eV above the Fermi level, and lifetimes of 40 and 20 fs, respectively. The dielectric continuum model and the Kronig–Penney model are employed to simulate the origin of (n = 1)-like image states. The work function decreases from 4.9 eV at clean Cu{111} to 4.0 eV at bilayer coverage. The change of the work function and the observation of two image states suggest the redefining of the ratio of the numbers of benzene molecules in the first and the second layers of the bilayer regime to approximately 1:1 instead of 1:2, as previously reported. 2PPE is shown to be sensitive to the changes of morphologies, local work functions, and adsorbate-surface potentials during the layer formation. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.