Photocurrents in neat methane and ethane

✍ Scribed by A. Krasinsky; U. Asaf; I.T. Steinberger; R. Reininger

• Book ID: 103034540
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 412 KB
• Volume: 231
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2614
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2614(94)01271-7

✦ Synopsis

Photocurrents appear in neat liquid methane for photon energies hv> 11.3 eV. In neat ethane gas, the photoconductivity threshold decreases with densityp from 11.5 eV atp=3x lOI cm-'to 10.85 eV atp=2.2x 102' cmp3. It continues to decrease, though more slowly, in the liquid. Moreover, in liquid CzHs an increase in the field strongly enhances the photocurrent, the degree of enhancement depending on the photon energy. No such enhancement was observed in liquid methane. The results are discussed with reference to known values of excess electron energies V0 and electron mobilities p,, and in view of recent simulation results [L Liu and B.J. Berne, J. Chem. Phys. 99 ( 1993) 90541 on electron solvation in both substances.