Role of elastic scattering in electron dynamics at ordered alkali overlayers on Cu(111)

Abstract

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy of p(2x2) Cs and Na ordered overlayers on Cu(111) reveals similar line widths of quasi two-dimensional quantum well states despite largely different binding energies. Detailed calculations show that 50% of the line widths are due to electron-phonon scattering while inelastic electron-electron scattering is negligible. A frequently ignored mechanism for ordered structures, i.e., enhanced elastic scattering due to Brillouin zone back folding, contributes the remaining width.

4 pages, 2 figures, 1 table

References in corpus (5)

• The SIESTA method for ab initio order-N materials simulation
• Efficient index handling of multidimensional periodic boundary conditions
• Surface-State Localization at Adatoms
• Electronic Structure and Dynamics of Quantum-Well States in thin Yb-Metal Films
• Phase coherence length and quantum interference patterns at step edges

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