Direct observation of an intermediate state for a surface photochemical reaction initiated by hot electron transfer

The photoinduced charge transfer that had been suggested to result in the dissociation of phenol on Ag(111) was investigated by two-photon photoemission spectroscopy. An unoccupied intermediate state was positively identified, which was found to be located 3.22 eV above the Fermi level. From the photoelectron energy dispersion, the effective mass of the intermediate state was determined to be (15 ± 10)m_e for a 1 ML coverage of phenol. This implies that the excited electron is localized mainly on the adsorbed phenol, forming a molecular resonance state. Polarization dependence of the photoelectron intensity suggested that the initial photoexcitation of the substrate produces hot electrons that scatter into the molecular resonance state, leading ultimately to the dissociation of the adsorbate. These results are the first two-photon photoemission study to characterize the transient anionic state involved in photodissociation of a molecule adsorbed on a metal surface.