The nature of a nonlinear excitation pathway from the Shockley surface state as probed by chirped pulse two photon photoemission

Phase-modulated femtosecond laser pulses are used to study the spectral response of a non-resonant two photon excitation from the Cu(111) Shockley surface state (SS). Controlled variations in the spectral phase of the laser pulse were introduced using a tuneable Fork prism phase modulator and resulted in a shift in the peak-position (of up to 110 meV), variations in the spectral width (up to 88 meV) and changes in the asymmetry of the SS peak as detected by two-photon photoemission. A satisfactory quantitative model of the experimental results can only be achieved if the complete spectral phase up to the third-order dispersion terms is taken into account. Of particular note, we find that a consistent description of this two photon absorption process does not require coupling of the excitation to an intermediate copper bulk state, which contradicts the previous results of Petek et al (1997 Phys. Rev. Lett . 79 4649).