Ion-Induced Surface Charge Dynamics in Freestanding Monolayers of Graphene and MoS_{2} Probed by the Emission of Electrons

Phys Rev Lett. 2022 Aug 19;129(8):086802. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.086802.

Abstract

We compare the ion-induced electron emission from freestanding monolayers of graphene and MoS_{2} to find a sixfold higher number of emitted electrons for graphene even though both materials have similar work functions. An effective single-band Hubbard model explains this finding by a charge-up in MoS_{2} that prevents low energy electrons from escaping the surface within a period of a few femtoseconds after ion impact. We support these results by measuring the electron energy distribution for correlated pairs of electrons and transmitted ions. The majority of emitted primary electrons have an energy below 10 eV and are therefore subject to the dynamic charge-up effects at surfaces.