Degenerate surface

Since the electron state density near the Fermi level at the degenerated surface (Fermi level pinning) is so high as to be comparable with that of metals, the Fermi level pinning at the surface state, at the conduction band, or at the valence band, is often called the quasi-metallization of semiconductor surfaces. As is described in Chap. 8, the quasi-metallized surface occasionally plays an important role in semiconductor electrode reactions. 

The stoi7 begins with studies of the molecular Jahn-Teller effect in the late 1950s [1-3]. The Jahn-Teller theorems themselves [4,5] are 20 years older and static Jahn-Teller distortions of elecbonically degenerate species were well known and understood. Geomebic phase is, however, a dynamic phenomenon, associated with nuclear motions in the vicinity of a so-called conical intersection between potential energy surfaces. 

The sum excludes m = n, because the derivation involves the vector product of (n Vq H n) with itself, which vanishes. The advantage of Eq. (43) over Eq. (31) is that the numerator is independent of arbiriary phase factors in n) or m) neither need be single valued. On the other hand, Eq. (43) is inapplicable, for the reasons given above if the degenerate point lies on the surface 5. 

To obtain potential surfaces for two electronic states that will be degenerate at these points, we write a Hamiltonian as a 2 x 2 matrix in a diabatic representation in the following form ... 

A conical intersection needs at least two nuclear degrees of freedom to form. In a ID system states of different symmetry will cross as Wy = 0 for i j and so when Wu = 0 the surfaces are degenerate. There is, however, no coupling between the states. States of the same symmetry in contrast cannot cross, as both Wij and Wu are nonzero and so the square root in Eq. (68) is always nonzero. This is the basis of the well-known non-crossing rule. 

Figure 5. A cut across the ground state (GS) and the excited state (ES) potential surfaces of the H4 system. The parameter Qp is the phase preserving nuclear coordinate connecting the H(lll) with the transition state between H(I) and H(1I) (Fig, 4). Keeping the phase of the electronic wave function constant, this coordinate leads from the ground to the excited state. At a certain point, the two surfaces must touch. At the crossing point, the wave function is degenerate.

Figure 20, The potential surface near the degeneracy point of a degenerate E state that distorts along two coordinates and Q. The parameter is the stabilization energy of the ground state (the depth of the moat ), [Adapted from [70]].

An example that is closely related to organic photochemishy is the x e case [70]. A doubly degenerate E term is the ground or excited state of any polyatomic system that has at least one axis of symmetry of not less than third order. It may be shown [70] that if the quadratic tenn in Eq, (17) is neglected, the potential surface becomes a moat around the degeneracy, sometimes called Mexican hat, The polar coordinates p and <(>, shown in Figure 20, can be used to write an expression for the energy ... 

Now, we examine the effect of vibronic interactions on the two adiabatic potential energy surfaces of nonlinear molecules that belong to a degenerate electronic state, so-called static Jahn-Teller effect. 

For vei y small vibronic coupling, the quadratic terms in the power series expansion of the electronic Hamiltonian in normal coordinates (see Appendix E) may be considered to be negligible, and hence the potential energy surface has rotational symmetry but shows no separate minima at the bottom of the moat. In this case, the pair of vibronic levels Aj and A2 in < 3 become degenerate by accident, and the D3/, quantum numbers (vi,V2,/2) may be used to label the vibronic levels of the X3 molecule. When the coupling of the... 

The emphasis in our previous studies was on isolated two-state conical intersections. Here, we would like to refer to cases where at a given point three (or more) states become degenerate. This can happen, for example, when two (line) seams cross each other at a point so that at this point we have three surfaces crossing each other. The question is How do we incorporate this situation into our theoretical framework ... 

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