Electrostatic-field-enhanced photoexfoliation of bilayer benzene: A first-principles study

Photoexfoliation of bilayer benzene in an external electrostatic (dc) field is studied using time-dependent density functional theory combined with molecular dynamics. We find that the dc-field-induced force on the upper benzene in addition to the repulsive interaction between the positively charged benzene molecules induced by the laser field leads to fast athermal exfoliation. Thus, we conclude that the dc field enhances the photoexfoliation due to dc-field emission in addition to laser-assisted photoemission. The athermal exfoliation process is shown to depend crucially on the charge state of benzene molecules rather than on the excitation energy supplied by the laser. (C) 2016 The Japan Society of Applied Physics