Band-Theoretic Model for the Photoelectric Effect in Silicon

The pseudopotential method which was previously used to discuss the optical reflectivity of silicon has now been applied to study its photoelectric properties. A quadratic interpolation procedure has been used in conjunction with the pseudopotential method to get a very dense sampling of the Brillouin zone. This allows a detailed comparison of the band-theoretic results for the energy distribution of photoemitted electrons with experiment. Most of the structure in the kinetic-energy distributions in the optical and nearultraviolet region of the electromagnetic spectrum can be understood in terms of direct interband transitions, although line shapes appear to be distorted by processes which are not treated in the present calculation. The photoelectric yield has been recomputed assuming total randomization of the crystal momentum for escaping electrons. The discussion of the optical properties has also been extended.