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

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Tobias Lau
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2009 to 2014
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 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 Programme: Research Grants
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Thomas Möller