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Energy-dependent apparent step heights of two-dimensional ultra-thin Pb islands grown on the Si(111)6$\times$6Au surface have been investigated by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy, first-principles density functional theory and the particle in a box model calculations. The apparent step height shows the thickness and energy dependent oscillatory behavior, which is directly related to the spilling of electron states into the vacuum exhibiting a quantum size effect. This has been unambiguously proven by extensive first-principles scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy simulations. An electronic contribution to the apparent step height is directly determined. At certain energies it reaches values as high as a half of the atomic contribution. The applicability of the particle in a box model to the spilling of electron states is also discussed., Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures

Using scanning tunneling microscopy together with the first-principles density functional theory calculations we study structural properties of the Si(111)5x2-Au surface covered by Ag adatoms. The STM topography data show that a submonolayer coverage of Ag does not lead to a well-ordered adatom chain structure with a periodicity 5x4, as it was observed for Si, Pb and In adatoms. Instead of that, we observe Ag adatoms located in different nonequivalent positions within the unit cell, which confirms the electronic nature of stabilization of the Si(111)5x2-Au surface. Moreover, the DFT calculations give five different structural models of the Si(111)5x2-Au/Ag surface. All the models are almost degenerate in energy, which further supports the above scenario., Comment: 8 pages, 2 figures

The influence of charged STM tip on the electron transport through quantum states on a surface is studied both theoretically and experimentally. The current and the differential conductance calculations are carried out by means of the Green's function technique and a tight-binding Hamiltonian. It is shown that sharp STM tip is extra occupied and this additional charge breaks the conductance symmetry for positive and negative STM voltages. The experiment on Ag islands with two STM tips (blunt and sharp) confirms our theoretical calculations., Comment: 26 pages, 12 figures

The STM tunneling through a quantum wire (QW) with a side-attached impurity (atom, island) is investigated using a tight-binding model and the nonequilibrium Keldysh Green function method. The impurity can be coupled to one or more QW atoms. The presence of the impurity strongly modifies the local density of states of the wire atoms, thus influences the STM tunneling through all the wire atoms. The transport properties of the impurity itself are also investigated mainly as a function of the wire length and the way it is coupled to the wire. It is shown that the properties of the impurity itself and the way it is coupled to the wire strongly influence the STM tunneling which is reflected in the density of states and differential conductance., Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures

We study thermoelectric properties of the system composed of a monoatomic chain on a surface and additional electrode coupled to the chain, which can be an STM tip. In particular, we are interested in thermopower, electric and thermal conductance, Wiedemann-Franz relation and thermoelectric figure of merit, which is a direct measure of the usefulness of the system for applications. We discuss the modifications of the STM wire topography due to temperature gradient between the electrodes. Finally, we also make connection to STM experiment, in which the thermopower has been directly measured, showing different structure, not visible in topography spectra., Comment: 5 pages, 3 eps figures

The reflectance difference (RD) as a function of film thickness was measured during Pb deposition on Si(111)-(6x6)Au surface at 105 K. The oblique incident s- and p-polarized light with energy range 0.25-0.60 eV was used. The component of the dielectric function tensor parallel to the surface was determined from the data of experiments and it oscillation due to quantum size effects (QSE) with period of 2 ML within the Pb monolayer-by-monolayer growth was observed., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

We study electronic and topographic properties of the vicinal Si(557)-Au surface using scanning tunneling microscopy and reflection of high energy electron diffraction technique. STM data reveal double wire structures along terraces. Moreover behavior of the voltage dependent STM tip - surface distance is different in different chains. While the one chain shows oscillations of the distance which are sensitive to the sign of the voltage bias, the oscillations in the other chain remain unchanged with respect to the positive/negative biases. This suggests that one wire has metallic character while the other one - semiconducting. The experimental results are supplemented by theoretical calculations within tight binding model suggesting that the observed chains are made of different materials, one is gold and the other one is silicon chain., Comment: 9 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B

The electronic structure of Si(111)-(6x6)Au surface covered with submonolayer amount of Pb is investigated using scanning tunneling spectroscopy. Already in small islands of Pb with thickness of 1 ML Pb$_{(111)}$ and with the diameter of only about 2 nm we detected the quantized electronic state with energy 0.55 eV below the Fermi level. Similarly, the I(V) characteristics made for the Si(111)-(6x6)Au surface reveal a localized energy state 0.3 eV below the Fermi level. These energies result from fitting of the theoretical curves to the experimental data. The calculations are based on tight binding Hubbard model. The theoretical calculations clearly show prominent modification of the I(V) curve due to variation of electronic and topographic properties of the STM tip apex., Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in Surface Science

The electrical conductivity changes of the Si(111)-(6x6)Au surface at early stage of Pb deposition was studied experimentally and theoretically as a function of coverage. Pb deposition onto a Si(111)-(6x6)Au surface induce strong change of the conductance even at a low coverage ($<1$ monolayer). The experimental results are analyzed using the theoretical model of two dimensional (2D) square atomic lattice., Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures

We study electronic and topographic properties of the Si(335) surface, containing Au wires parallel to the steps. We use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) supplemented by reflection of high energy electron diffraction (RHEED) technique. The STM data show the space and voltage dependent oscillations of the distance between STM tip and the surface which can be explained within one band tight binding Hubbard model. We calculate the STM current using nonequilibrium Keldysh Green function formalism., Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures