High-resolution photoemission study of the electronic structure of the noble-metal (111) surfaces

Abstract

High-resolution angle-resolved photoemission studies of the (111) surfaces of copper, silver, and gold are reported which investigate in detail the properties of the intrinsic surface states located in the projected sp-band gaps at the center of the surface Brillouin zones. Accurate two-dimensional energy dispersion relations are reported for each surface state and are quantified in terms of effective masses at the surface Brillouin-zone center. The masses for the three metals are found to be remarkably similar when normalized to the effective mass of the lower edge of the bulk continuum. The decay length of the surface state wave function into the surface was determined for all three surfaces. These results are expressed in terms of an effective mass of the complex dispersion relation within the projected band gap. In accord with our previous results on the copper state, these effective masses are found to be anomalously large by approximately a factor of 2 relative to expectations based on effective mass theory coupled to first-principles bulk band calculations. An explanation of this anomaly involving the nonorthogonality of effective-mass-theory-derived states is explored. All experimental results are compared to the predictions of recent self-consistent surface electronic structure calculations for these surfaces.