Photon Driven Dynamics at Surfaces

Dear Colleagues,

Photon absorption at surfaces and interfaces leads to extremely rapid heating and/or the creation of non-equilibrium electron distributions. The rapid and precise deposition of energy into the system can be used to affect chemical and structural transformations leading to the formation not only of chemical reaction products but also nanoparticles and nanostructures.

The harvesting of solar radiation to stimulate chemical reactions is a burgeoning field. Of particular interest are applications of solar irradiation to drive the formation of energy carriers, i.e., solar fuels, such as H₂ or liquid hydrocarbons. Water splitting, as well as CO₂ reduction and artificial photosynthesis, among other reactions are actively being investigated. Laser irradiation with short-pulsed lasers facilitates the probing of reactions in a time-resolved manner to reveal intricate dynamical details of reactions on the surfaces of both semiconductors and metals. At higher intensity lasers can drive non-linear phenomena as well as structural transformations associated with surface atom mobility and eventually ablation. Laser ablation in liquids efficiently produces nanoparticles by the simultaneous stimulation of surface atom ejection and chemical reactions.

The aim of this Special Issue is to offer an open-access forum where researchers in the field of surface science, photochemistry and materials science can highlight significant advances made possible by the application of the surface science approach to heterogeneous photochemistry and laser driven structural transformations. In this Special Issue, papers addressing both basic science and more applied topics in the fields of photochemistry, photocatalysis, energy conversion, laser/surface interactions and laser ablation are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Kurt W. Kolasinski
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Surfaces is an international peer-reviewed open access quarterly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Photocatalysis, laser ablation, photon stimulated desorption and photon driven processes
• In-situ and operando techniques for the study of photon stimulated dynamics
• Structural and chemical characterization materials surfaces
• Materials for photoelectrochemical energy conversion
• Model and Real world photo- and photoelectro-catalysts
• Computational studies and modeling