Surface electronic spectra detected by atomic desorption

Using Continuously tunable laser excitation of KI we measure the desorption yield of hyperthermal iodine atoms as a function of photon energy. Based on a theoretical model of desorption we demonstrate that these spectra display a signature of a surface exciton and constitute a new sensitive method of surface electronic spectroscopy detected by atomic desorption. Our results not only demonstrate that creation of surface excitons call be a much more general phenomenon than was previously thought, based on measurements made using established spectroscopic techniques, but extend the classes of material amenable to surface spectroscopic interrogation. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.