Lateral quantum wells at vicinal Au(111) studied with angle-resolved photoemission

Electrons at noble metal surfaces can be confined within terraces leading to one-dimensional surface states. These can be studied with angle-resolved photoemission from vicinal surfaces with regular arrays of (111)-oriented terraces. Here we show the case of Au(23 23 21), which is vicinal to Au(111) and displays $L=56\mathrm{}\mathrm{\AA }$ wide terraces. The surface state band appears broken up into three quantum well levels that match to those of the infinite quantum well of the same width L. Their parallel momentum dependent photoemission intensity allows mapping the probability density of the confined wave function in reciprocal space using angle-resolved photoemission. By Fourier transformation, their respective experimental wave functions in real space are obtained and compared to the case of the infinite quantum-well, showing excellent agreement. Final state step superlattice diffraction effects have also been observed. Finally, we observe the quenching of the characteristic spin-orbit coupling of Au(111) in the confinement direction. This is another indication of the one-dimensional character of the surface state, as confirmed with first order perturbation theory.