Surface Reactivity and Quantum-Size Effects on the Electronic Density Decay Length of Ultrathin Metal Films

N. Binggeli and M. Altarelli
Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 036805 – Published 27 January 2006

Abstract

The origin of the correlation between surface reactivity and quantum-size effects, observed in recent experiments on the oxidation of ultrathin magnesium films, is addressed by means of ab initio calculations and model predictions. We show that the decay length in vacuum of the electronic local density of states at the Fermi energy exhibits systematic oscillations with film thickness, with local maxima induced when a quantum-well state at k=0 crosses the Fermi energy. The predicted changes in the decay length are expected to have a major impact on the electron transfer rate by tunneling, which has been proposed to control the initial sticking of O2 in the oxidation process.

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  • Received 11 October 2005

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.036805

©2006 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

N. Binggeli1,2 and M. Altarelli1,3

  • 1The Abdus Salam International Center for Theoretical Physics, Trieste 34014 , Italy
  • 2INFM-CNR DEMOCRITOS National Simulation Center, Trieste 34014, Italy
  • 3European XFEL Project Team, DESY, Notkestraße 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 3 — 27 January 2006

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