UPS measurements of molecular energy level of condensed gases

There have been numerous attempts to use ultraviolet photoemission spcctroscopy (UPS) to monitor the chemical states of adsorbed gas molecules on metal surfaces. To interpret the data correctly, one has to determine the effect of photoemission on the measured energy levels of the molecule. We have measured the UPS spectra of seven gases (C₆H₆, C₅H₅N, CH₃OH, C₂H₅OH, H₂CO, H₂O, NH₃) condensed on a LN₂ cooled MoS₂ substrate at hv = 21.2 eV. The inertness of the MoS₂ substrate assures that no strong chemical bonding exists between the substrate and adsorbed molecules. For each gas, the spectrum of the condensed phase is similar to the corresponding spectrum of the gas phase except all the energy levels are shifted up by the same amount. This shift ranges from 1 to 1.65 eV for the gases studied. The energy shift is attributed to the dielectric screening of the hole produced during the optical excitation.