Philipp Hurdax defends his PhD thesis

Philipp Hurdax recently finished his PhD thesis entitled “Charge Transfer Across Ultrathin Dielectric Layers: A Controlled Study of the Phenomenon on MgO on Ag(100)”. Ultrathin dielectric films on metals have come into the focus of research due to their novel properties compared to both pristine metals and bulk dielectrics. They can decouple adsorbates from the underlying metal; however, they can also promote charge transfer into adsorbates. In his thesis, Philipp provided answers and the missing understanding of the phenomenon of charge transfer across dielectric interlayers both qualitatively and quantitatively, by using a combination of surface science techniques, including angular resolved photoemission spectroscopy and photoemission orbital tomography, which were supported by scanning tunneling microscopy experiments and density functional calculations. By controlling the preparation parameters of the dielectric/metal substrate, he was able to tune the charge transfer into adsorbates and demonstrated how the different electrostatic coupling of charged and uncharged species on the surface leads to surprising phenomena and affects the behavior of the molecular films in several interesting ways.