Interfacial Energy and Charge Transfer Dynamics

Zachery Donnellan and Melody Li

Interfacial Energy and Charge Transfer Dynamics

Interfacial electronic dynamics are at the heart of many emerging solar light harvesting systems, ranging from the production of solar fuels to novel approaches to photovoltaics. In this thrust, we provide a deeper understanding of the atomic-level details of ultrafast energy and charge transfer dynamics in interfacial systems using Time-resolved X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (TRXPS) and Time-resolved X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (TRXAS). Experiments are performed at X-ray Free Electron Lasers and Synchrotron Light Sources, such as LCLS, FLASH, and ALS.

Interfacial Dynamics – Selected Publications

see here for a complete list of publications

Lukas Wenthaus, Nikolay M. Kabachnik, Mario Borgwardt, Steffen Palutke, Dmytro Kutnyakhov, Federico Pressacco, Markus Scholz, Dmitrii Potorochin, Nils Wind, Stefan Düsterer, Günter Brenner, Oliver Gessner, Serguei Molodtsov, Wolfgang Eberhardt, and Friedrich Roth, “New insights into the laser-assisted photoelectric effect from solid-state surfaces”, Phys. Rev. B 110, 235406 (2024), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.110.235406.
Friedrich Roth, Johannes Mahl, Mario Borgwardt, Lukas Wenthaus, Felix Brausse, Valentin Garbe, Oliver Gessner, and Wolfgang Eberhardt, “Dynamical non-linear inversion of the surface photovoltage on Si (100)”, Phys. Rev. Lett. 132, 146201 (2024), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.146201.
Stefan Neppl, Johannes Mahl, Friedrich Roth, Giuseppe Mercurio, Guosong Zeng, Francesca M. Toma, Nils Huse, Peter Feulner, and Oliver Gessner, “Nanoscale confinement of photoinjected electrons at hybrid interfaces”, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 12, 11951 (2021), DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.1c02648, Cover Article, Department of Energy Science Highlight.
Friedrich Roth, Mario Borgwardt, Lukas Wenthaus, Johannes Mahl, Steffen Palutke, Günter Brenner, Serguei Molodtsov, Wilfried Wurth, Oliver Gessner, and Wolfgang Eberhardt, “Direct observation of charge separation in an organic light harvesting system by femtosecond time-resolved XPS”, Nat. Commun. 12, 1196 (2021), DOI: 10.1038/s41467- 021-21454-3, Science Highlight in DESY Annual Photon Science Report 2021.
Mario Borgwardt, Johannes Mahl, Friedrich Roth, Lukas Wenthaus, Felix Brauße, Monika Blum, Klaus Schwarzburg, Guiji Liu, Francesca M. Toma, and Oliver Gessner, “Photoinduced charge carrier dynamics and electron injection efficiencies in Au nanoparticlesensitized TiO2 determined with picosecond time-resolved X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy”, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11, 5476 (2020), DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c00825, Department of Energy Science Highlight.
J. Mahl, S. Neppl, F. Roth, M. Borgwardt, C. Saladrigas, B. W. Toulson, J. Kyle Cooper, T. Rahman, H. Bluhm, J. Guo, W. Yang, N. Huse, W. Eberhardt, and O. Gessner, “Decomposing Electronic and Lattice Contributions in Optical Pump – X-ray Probe Transient Inner-Shell Absorption Spectroscopy of CuO”, Faraday Discuss. 216, 414 (2019), DOI: 10.1039/C8FD00236C.
F. Roth, S. Neppl, A. Shavorskiy, T. Arion, J. Mahl, H. O. Seo, H. Bluhm, Z. Hussain, O. Gessner, and W. Eberhardt, “Efficient charge generation from triplet excitons in metalorganic heterojunctions”, Phys. Rev. B 99, 020303(R) (2019), DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.99.020303, Department of Energy Science Highlight.
Oliver Gessner and Markus Gühr, “Monitoring Ultrafast Chemical Dynamics by TimeDomain X-Ray Photo- and Auger-Electron Spectroscopy”, Acc. Chem. Res. 49, 138 (2016), DOI: 10.1021/acs.accounts.5b00361.
Stefan Neppl and Oliver Gessner, “Time-resolved X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Techniques for the Study of Interfacial Charge Dynamics”, J. Electron Spectrosc. Relat. Phenom. 200, 64 (2015), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.elspec.2015.03.002.
K. R. Siefermann, C. D. Pemmaraju, S. Neppl, A. Shavorskiy, A. A. Cordones, J. Vura-Weis, D. S. Slaughter, F. P. Sturm, F. Weise, H. Bluhm, M. L. Strader, H. Cho, M.-F. Lin, C. Bacellar, C. Khurmi, J. Guo, G. Coslovich, J. S. Robinson, R. A. Kaindl, R. W. Schoenlein, A. Belkacem, D. M. Neumark, S. R. Leone, D. Nordlund, H. Ogasawara, O. Krupin, J. J. Turner, W. F. Schlotter, M. R. Holmes, M. Messerschmidt, M. P. Minitti, S. Gul, J. Z. Zhang, N. Huse, D. Prendergast, and O. Gessner, “Atomic Scale Perspective of Ultrafast Charge Transfer at a Dye-Semiconductor Interface”, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 5, 2753 (2014), DOI: 10.1021/jz501264x.
Andrey Shavorskiy, Stefan Neppl, Daniel S. Slaughter, James P. Cryan, Katrin R. Siefermann, Fabian Weise, Ming-Fu Lin, Camila Bacellar, Michael P. Ziemkiewicz, Ioannis Zegkinoglou, Matthew W. Fraund, Champak Khurmi, Marcus P. Hertlein, Travis W. Wright, Nils Huse, Robert W. Schoenlein, Tolek Tyliszczak, Giacomo Coslovich, Joseph Robinson, Robert A. Kaindl, Bruce S. Rude, Andreas Ölsner, Sven Mähl, Hendrik Bluhm, and Oliver Gessner, “Sub-Nanosecond Time-Resolved Ambient-Pressure X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy Setup for Pulsed and Constant Wave X-ray Light Sources”, Rev. Sci. Instrum. 85, 093102 (2014), DOI: 10.1063/1.4894208.