Femtosecond time-resolved two-photon photoemission studies of ultrafast carrier relaxation in Cu_2O photoelectrodes
Abstract
Cuprous oxide (Cu_2O) is a promising material for solar-driven water splitting to produce hydrogen. However, the relatively small accessible photovoltage limits the development of efficient Cu_2O based photocathodes. Here, femtosecond time-resolved two-photon photoemission spectroscopy has been used to probe the electronic structure and dynamics of photoexcited charge carriers at the Cu_2O surface as well as the interface between Cu_2O and a platinum (Pt) adlayer. By referencing ultrafast energy-resolved surface sensitive spectroscopy to bulk data we identify the full bulk to surface transport dynamics for excited electrons rapidly localized within an intrinsic deep continuous defect band ranging from the whole crystal volume to the surface. No evidence of bulk electrons reaching the surface at the conduction band level is found resulting into a substantial loss of their energy through ultrafast trapping. Our results uncover main factors limiting the energy conversion processes in Cu_2O and provide guidance for future material development.
Additional Information
© 2019 The Author(s). This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. Received 09 November 2018; Accepted 23 April 2019; Published 08 May 2019. Data availability: The source data underlying Figs. 2a–d and 3 are available in Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2628238. The source data for the Supplementary Figures are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. M.B., R.E. and D.F. thank P. Sippel for discussions. M.B. acknowledges funding from the Helmholtz Association through the Excellence network UniSysCat (ExNet-0024-1). This work was supported in part (S.T.O., H.A.A. and N.S.L.) through the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under award no. DE-SC0004993 to the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, a DOE Energy Innovation Hub. D.F. acknowledges support by the German Research Foundation (DFG), project numbers PAK 981/1 and FR 4025/2-1. Author Contributions: M.B., D.F. and R.E. designed the experiments on samples provided by S.T.O, H.A.A., and N.S.L. M.B. and D.F. carried out the laser experiments and analyzed the data with the help of R. vdK and R.E. M.B., M.F., P.P., C.H. and D.F. performed the LEED and XPS measurements and analyzed the data. D.A.-R. performed the SEM/EDX experiments. K.S. performed the AFM measurements. M.B., R.E. and D.F. prepared the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper. The authors declare no competing interests.Attached Files
Published - s41467-019-10143-x.pdf
Supplemental Material - 41467_2019_10143_MOESM1_ESM.pdf
Supplemental Material - 41467_2019_10143_MOESM2_ESM.pdf
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Additional details
- Alternative title
- Femtosecond time-resolved two-photon photoemission studies of ultrafast carrier relaxation in Cu2O photoelectrodes
- PMCID
- PMC6506537
- Eprint ID
- 95415
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20190513-072232965
- ExNet-0029-1
- Helmholtz Association
- DE-SC0004993
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- PAK 981/1
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- FR 4025/2-1
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)
- Created
-
2019-05-13Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-02-25Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- JCAP, Kavli Nanoscience Institute