The road to hot electron photochemistry at surfaces: A personal recollection

Abstract

A very important part of contemporary fs-laser surface photochemistry (SPC) is based on a proposed mechanism in which a laser pulse incident upon an adsorbate-covered surface photoexcites substrate electrons which in turn inelastically scatter from atoms and molecules (chemists may call them “reactants”) in or on the surface. The present narrative outlines my own very personal SPC saga that began with early exposure to the wonders of and fascination with inelastic resonant electron scattering from gas phase atoms and molecules that dominated the Atomic and Electron Physics activities at NBS (now NIST) in 1968 when I arrived. How this lead to a fundamental understanding of important aspects of SPC is the focus of this essay.