Chemical energy dissipation at surfaces under UHV and high pressure conditions studied using metal-insulator-metal and similar devices.

Metal heterostructures have been used in recent years to gain insights into the relevance of energy dissipation into electronic degrees of freedom in surface chemistry. Non-adiabaticity in the surface chemistry results in the creation of electron-hole pairs, the number and energetic distribution of which need to be studied in detail. Several types of devices, such as metal-insulator-metal, metal-semiconductor and metal-semiconductor oxide-semiconductor, have been used. These devices operate by spatially separating the electrons from the holes, as an internal barrier allows only - or at least favours - transport from the top to the back electrode for one kind of carrier. An introduction into the matter, a survey of the literature and a critical discussion of the state of research is attempted.