Electronic structure and optical properties of transition metal doped silicon clusters on surfaces

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Tobias Lau
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Experimentelle Physik der kondensierten Materie
• Förderung: Förderung von 2009 bis 2014
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 138260344

Transition metal-doped silicon clusters are attracting considerable attention because of their tunable HOMO-LUMO gaps and a presumed high stability of `magic clusters, which are characterized by electronic shell closure and a highly symmetric silicon shell encapsulating a transition metal atom. In spite of extensive theoretical work, their optical properties are hitherto unknown, owing to a lack of experiments which are sensitive enough to investigate the optical properties of size-selected clusters only available in trace quantities. In this project we aim at a detailed understanding of the electronic structure and the optical properties of size-selected doped silicon clusters on surfaces by probing them directly with UV/visible photoabsorption, fluorescence, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. A central question that will be addressed with these methods concerns the fundamental effect of doping on the optical and electronic properties of a nanoscale semiconductor cluster defined to atomic precision.

• DFG-Verfahren: Sachbeihilfen
• Beteiligte Person: Professor Dr. Thomas Möller