The goal of this project is to understand how the vibrational and electronic spectroscopy of semiconductor clusters evolves with size. This will be accomplished using a variety of negative ion photodetachment techniques developed in this laboratory. Three specific classes of experiments are proposed: Binary cluster anions, including boron nitride, alumninum nitride and phosphide, and silicon nitride, will be studied using high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy and zero-electron kinetic energy spectroscopy; Photoelectron spectroscopy of large (up to 200 atoms) indium phosphide and gallium phosphide cluster anions will be carried out with the goal of connecting the electronic structure of these species with larger semiconductor clusters in the "quantum dot" size regime; A time- resolved experiment, anion femtosecond photoelectron spectroscopy, will be used to extract vibrational frequencies of ground and excited electronic states of size-selected silicon, germanium, and indium phosphide cluster anions. %%% This project is very important to advancing materials research in that it bridges the gap in describing the physical and chemical behavior of small molecular clusters with that of the world of mesoscale and macroscopic behavior of device materials being developed for the world of electronic device applications. ***
