Role of electron-hole pairs in the mechanisms of desorption from semiconductor surfaces

In the presence of a dense electron-hole plasma (due to high power laser irradiation or resulting from a plasma driven phase transition or melting), it is shown that desorption is drastically enhanced. This permits us to propose a test for the validity of the hypothesis of the plasma driven melting in Si. Also the creation of surface excitons is shown to lead to enhanced desorption.