Abstract
During the photoemission process the parallel component of the photoelectron momentum is conserved across the modulation plane of the wavefunction, which is the so-called reference plane. The identification of this plane is straightforward for low Miller-index surfaces, but questionable for surfaces of lower symmetry. In this work, the authors show experimentally the coexistence of two different reference planes for surface and bulklike quantum-well states of thin nanostructured films grown on a regularly stepped substrate.
Highlights
The description of the surface electronic structure of a crystalline solid may depend on the lateral length scale, which is especially evident in the case of stepped surfaces
The question on whether there exists a unique photoelectron reference plane for a stepped solid surface is discussed on the basis of angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy data for Ag films grown on Pt(997)
Quantum well standing waves form between the parallel optical surface and interface planes, while the surface state follows the orientation of a local plane tilted with respect to the optical surface
Summary
The description of the surface electronic structure of a crystalline solid may depend on the lateral length scale, which is especially evident in the case of stepped surfaces. The discrete translational symmetry of crystalline surfaces imposes that, during the photoemission process, the parallel component of the photoelectron momentum k|| is conserved across the modulation plane of the wave function, i.e., the so-called reference plane [1] The identification of this plane is straightforward for low Miller index surfaces, where the average (optical) surface and the terrace plane coincide. In the present paper we will examine experimentally the concept of photoelectron reference plane for the surface and “bulklike” electronic states of thin films grown on a regularly stepped substrate. We conclude that two photoelectron reference planes coexist in our system due to the nanostructured morphology of the surface (different from the stepped substrate) and the characteristic spatial localization (surface vs bulklike) of the electronic states.
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