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Bielefeld physicists publish in the research journal ‘Science’

Atoms emit electrons when a material is irradiated with light at a sufficiently high frequency. Previously, physics had assumed that the motion of these photoelectrons is determined by the properties of the material. In a new study, physicists at Bielefeld University have shown that it is the interplay of the electrons within the atom that is decisive. ‘Dancing’ electrons orbit the nucleus of the atom and require more time than other electrons that shoot out in straight lines. The Bielefeld researchers are the first in the world to confirm the existence of this delay mechanism  in a solid. The study has been published this Friday (22.09.17) in the scientific journal ‘Science’. To carry out this research, the experimenters cooperated closely with colleagues working in theoretical physics at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) at the University of the Basque Country (San Sebastian, Spain).  

To emit electrons from the semiconductor crystal, researchers in Bielefeld bombard it with ultra-short laser pulses. Photo: Bielefeld University 

Albert Einstein received his Nobel Prize for explaining the photoelectric effect: light transfers energy to electrons in the form of energy packets called light quanta or photons. If the light quanta have sufficiently high energy, the electron can leave the material. This is known as the ‘photo effect’. At lower light quanta energies, this effect forms, for example, the basis for generating electricity with solar cells. It is of fundamental importance for many further technological applications.

‘We are talking about extremely  tiny time intervals here,’ says Pfeiffer. The methodology used belongs to the emerging field of attosecond laser technology. The arrival of the electrons is determined with a resolution of approximately ten attoseconds. An attosecond is a billionth of a billionth of a second. The relation of the time resolution in the experiment to one second is roughly equivalent to the relation of one second to the age of the universe.

The physicists Sergej Neb and Prof. Dr. Walter Pfeiffer (from left to right) use laser spectroscopy in Bielefeld University’s attosecond lab to study how electrons react to light. Photo: Bielefeld University

The laser experiments produced an unexpected result: ‘What are actually the faster electrons arrive later,’ says Pfeiffer. ‘That’s because they are initially still in orbit around the atomic nucleus before they make their way to the surface of the material and are emitted. Hence, electrons that dance round the atomic nucleus lose the race.’ Other electrons, according to Pfeiffer, fly straight out of the atom. ‘That’s like a rocket that is launched straight into space without first orbiting the earth.’ Because it is actually the slower electron taking the direct path that wins the race.

Whether and how long an electron dances round the nucleus depends on its starting conditions. ‘The semiconductor material that we used offers four photoemission channels with different starting conditions,’ says Pfeiffer. It was comparing these four channels that permitted, according to Pfeiffer, the far-reaching conclusions of the study that is now being published.

‘Our observation that fast electrons can require more time to leave the solid makes it necessary to modify the previous theoretical assumption used to describe the photo effect,’ says the experimental physicist Pfeiffer. ‘New theoretical models of photoemission from solids will have to take into account the interplay between the electrons in the atom that emits the photoelectrons. Hence, the dance of the electrons after excitation needs to be treated correctly.’

The cooperation with the theoretical physicists working in the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) at the University of the Basque Country (San Sebastian, Spain) made a decisive contribution to interpreting the Bielefeld experiments. The DIPC worked out how the electrons moved, both within  the atom and in the semiconductor crystal. Other partners in the study were: the Institute for Solar Fuels at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin for Materials and Energy, the Basque Foundation for Science (Spain), the Skobeltsyn Institute of Nuclear Physics at the Lomonosov Moscow State University in Moscow (Russia), the company European XFEL GmbH in Schenefeld near Hamburg, the Helmholtz Institute Jena, and the Materials Physics Center CFM/MPC in San Sebastián (Spain).

Original publication:
Fabian Siek, Sergej Neb, Peter Bartz, Matthias Hensen, Christian Strüber, Sebastian Fiechter, Miquel Torrent-Sucarrat, Vyacheslav M. Silkin, Eugene E. Krasovski, Nikolay M. Kabachnik, Stephan Fritzsche, Ricardo Díez Muiño, Pedro M. Echenique, Andrey K. Kazansky, Norbert Müller, Walter Pfeiffer, and Ulrich Heinzmann: Angular momentum induced delays in solid state photoemission enhanced by intra-atomic interactions. Science. https://doi.org/ 10.1126/science.aam9598, published on the 22nd of September.

Further information:
Chair for Molecular and Surface Physics: http://www.physik.uni-bielefeld.de/mop

Contact:
Prof. Dr. Walter Pfeiffer, Bielefeld University
Faculty of Physics
Telephone: +49 521 106-5470
E-Mail: pfeiffer@physik.uni-bielefeld.de