Back to Search Start Over

Structure and electronic states of vicinal Ag(111) surfaces with densely kinked steps

Authors :
J Enrique Ortega
Guillaume Vasseur
Ignacio Piquero-Zulaica
Sonia Matencio
Miguel Angel Valbuena
Julien E Rault
Frederik Schiller
Martina Corso
Aitor Mugarza
Jorge Lobo-Checa
Source :
New Journal of Physics, Vol 20, Iss 7, p 073010 (2018)
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
IOP Publishing, 2018.

Abstract

Vicinal surfaces exhibiting arrays of atomic steps are frequently investigated due to their diverse physical-chemical properties and their use as growth templates. However, surfaces featuring steps with a large number of low-coordinated kink-atoms have been widely ignored, despite their higher potential for chemistry and catalysis. Here, the equilibrium structure and the electronic states of vicinal Ag(111) surfaces with densely kinked steps are investigated in a systematic way using a curved crystal. With scanning tunneling microscopy we observe an exceptional structural homogeneity of this class of vicinals, reflected in the smooth probability distribution of terrace sizes at all vicinal angles. This allows us to observe, first, a subtle evolution of the terrace-size distribution as a function of the terrace-width that challenges statistical models of step lattices, and second, lattice fluctuations around resonant modes of surface states. As shown in angle resolved photoemission experiments, surface states undergo stronger scattering by fully-kinked step-edges, which triggers the full depletion of the two-dimensional band at surfaces with relatively small vicinal angles.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
13672630
Volume :
20
Issue :
7
Database :
Directory of Open Access Journals
Journal :
New Journal of Physics
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
edsdoj.5c095dd7e6041f1873262b9fb564958
Document Type :
article
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/aacbb7