Valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy is used to investigate the plasmon excitations of ultrathin sandwiched between amorphous Si and crystalline Si. Two plasmon excitations were observed, one at 15.8 eV and the other at 28.7 eV. Our calculations, based on dielectric-function theory, suggest that the former peak originates from the coupling of the Si layers and is related to the geometry of the structure, and the latter peak results from the bulk plasmon after a redshift. Our findings demonstrate the value of valence electron energy-loss spectroscopy in detecting a local change in the effective electron mass.
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2010
American Institute of Physics
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