Optical transitions in photofield emission from barium covered tungsten were observed. The initial energies of the excited electrons obtained for different crystallographic planes range near the values of s₁ = -0.07 ± 0.02 eV and s₂ = -0.28 ± 0.04 eV with respect to the Fermi level. The energies are ascribed to electrons in the thin barium layer. The work functions of the barium covered tungsten (100), (111) and (100) planes were estimated using field emission method. In order to measure very small photocurrents a modulated laser radiation and the phase-sensitive detection were used.
Using the photofield emission method, surface states and bulk excitations from clean and residual gas adsorbed (111) face of tungsten were measured. Residual gas shaded the surface states and diminished photoemission from the bulk excitations. Gas of the artificially increased background pressure 10^{-8} Pa adsorbed during the measurement deforms the photocurrent-voltage characteristic; the optical excitations observed for clean surfaces are exhibited, diminished or lost. For the adsorbed (111) face the state related to the metal-gas surface has been observed.
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