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Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 146805 (2004) [4 pages]

Scanning-Tunneling Spectroscopy of Surface-State Electrons Scattered by a Slightly Disordered Two-Dimensional Dilute “Solid”: Ce on Ag(111)

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Markus Ternes1,*, Cédric Weber2, Marina Pivetta1, François Patthey1, Jonathan P. Pelz3, Thierry Giamarchi4, Frédéric Mila5, and Wolf-Dieter Schneider1
1Institut de Physique des Nanostructures, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
2Institut de Recherche Romand sur les Matériaux (IRRMA), EPFL, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland
3Department of Physics, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 43210, USA
4DPMC, University of Geneva, Quai Enerst Ansermet 24, CH-1211 Geneva, Switzerland
5Institute of Theoretical Physics, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland

Received 16 January 2004; published 29 September 2004

Low temperature (3.9 K) scanning-tunneling spectroscopy on a hexagonal superlattice of Ce adatoms on Ag(111) reveals site-dependent characteristic features in differential conductance spectra and in spectroscopic images at atomic-scale spatial resolution. Using a tight-binding model, we relate the overall spectral structures to the scattering of Ag(111) surface-state electrons by the Ce adatoms, the site dependence to the disorder induced by imperfections of the superlattice, and the opening of a gap in the local density of states to the observed stabilization of superlattices with adatom distances in the range of 2.3-3.5  nm.

© 2004 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.146805
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.146805
PACS:
73.21.Cd, 68.37.Ef, 73.20.At

*Electronic address: Markus.Ternes@epfl.ch

 
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