Osnabrück 2002 – scientific programme

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A: Atomphysik

A 6: Elektronenstreuung/-rekombination

A 6.4: Talk

Tuesday, March 5, 2002, 17:15–17:30, HS 15/E10

Multiple-scattering approach to tunneling through atomic junctions — •Jamal Berakdar, Juergen Henk, and Patrick Bruno — Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle (Saale)

The qualitative and quantitative theoretical description of tunneling through atomic size devices, such as atoms attached to a STM tip, utilizes the conventional Tersoff-Hamann model. This model simply relates the tunneling current to the spectral density of the sample. Other relevant properties of the tunneling in the tip-sample system are however neglected.

Viewing electronic tunneling as a scattering process, we present a formulation of STM in terms of multiple-scattering theory which takes into account the tip-sample interaction. Further, electronic properties of the constituent systems can be obtained by ab-initio calculations. Besides the general formalism and its implementation in a spin-polarised relativistic layer-KKR scheme, we sketch results for prototypical systems – with a focus on features of the scattering-theoretical approach.