Electronic states at vicinal surfaces

Abstract

Vicinal noble metal surfaces with regular arrays of steps and terraces are very convenientmodel systems to test the electronic properties of lateral nanostructures. Usingangle-resolved photoemission with synchrotron radiation we thoroughly characterizeelectronic states and wavefunctions in a variety of vicinal Cu(111) and Au(111)surfaces. By tuning the terrace width, we can observe the fundamental transitionfrom arrays of non-interacting nano-objects (terraces), where electron states areconfined, to lateral coupling between terraces, which leads to superlattice states.