Role of the electric field in surface electron dynamics above the vacuum level

Abstract

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) is used to study the dynamics of hot electrons trapped on a Cu(100) surface in field emission resonances (FER) above the vacuum level. Differential conductance maps show isotropic electron interference wave patterns around defects whenever their energy lies within a surface projected band gap. Their Fourier analysis reveals a broad wave vector distribution, interpreted as due to the lateral acceleration of hot electrons in the inhomogeneous tip-induced potential. A line-shape analysis of the characteristic constant-current conductance spectra permits to establish the relation between apparent width of peaks and intrinsic line-width of FERs, as well as the identification of the different broadening mechanisms.

7 pages, 4 figures, to appear in Phys. Rev. B

References in corpus (5)

• The role of the spin in quasiparticle interference
• Surface State Stark Shift in a Scanning Tunneling Microscope
• Quantum Coherence of Image-Potential States
• Role of elastic scattering in electron dynamics at ordered alkali overlayers on Cu(111)
• Lifetimes of Stark-shifted image states

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• Probing Image Potential States on Topological Semimetal Antimony Surface
• Ultrafast optically induced tunneling in narrow metallic gaps from the time dependent density functional perspective