Photoconductivities from band states and a dissipative electron dynamics: Si(111) without and with adsorbed Ag clusters

A new general computational procedure is presented to obtain photoconductivities starting from atomic structures, combining ab initio electronic energy band states with populations from density matrix theory, and implemented for a specific set of materials based on Si crystalline slabs and their nanostructured surfaces without and with adsorbed Ag clusters. The procedure accounts for charge mobility in semiconductors in photoexcited states, and specifically electron and hole photomobilities at Si(111) surfaces with and without adsorbed Ag clusters using ab initio energy bands and orbitals generated from a generalized gradient functional, however with excited energy levels modified to provide correct bandgaps. Photoexcited state populations for each band and carrier type were generated using steady state solution of a reduced density matrix which includes dissipative medium effects. The present calculations provide photoexcited electronic populations and photoinduced mobilities resulting from applied electric fields and obtained from the change of driven electron energies with their electronic momentum. Extensive results for Si slabs with 8 layers, without and with adsorbed Ag clusters, show that the metal adsorbates lead to substantial increases in the photomobility and photoconductivity of electrons and holes. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.