Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 74: Nanostructures at surfaces: Other

O 74.7: Talk

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 16:30–16:45, H34

Spatially modulated differential conductance in nm narrow Cu channels between and on Co islands — •Safia Ouazi, Yasmine Nahas, Marco Corbetta, Hirofumi Oka, Dirk Sander, and Jürgen Kirschner — Max-Planck-Institut für Mikrostrukturphysik, Weinberg 2, 06120 Halle (Saale), Germany

Electron scattering off step edges and due to confinement in nanostructures leads to interference effects which induce a spatially modulated local density of states [1]. We measure maps of the differential conductance dI/dV on Cu(111) in a 7 nm narrow channel between Co islands by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at 8 K. We observe a spatially modulated dI/dV signal in the channel, and also on the adjacent Co islands. We extract the energy and position dependence of the modulation pattern. The electron energy dispersion is discrete in the wave vector k. Our results are well described by a quantization rule for k, which identifies the channel width and the island height as the decisive length scales. The role of structural relaxation and electronic rim states for electron confinement in channels and islands is discussed.