Revisiting Local Electric Fields on Close-Packed Metal Surfaces: Theory Versus Experiments

Abstract

An external electrostatic field of the order of a few tens of a volt per nanometer causes significant changes in the electron density distribution near a metal surface. Because of differing electronic distributions and varying responses of electrons to the applied field for various metals, the resulting local field distribution in the close vicinity of the surface should depend on the electronic properties of the particular metal, even for flat surfaces. Field-free and field-modified electron density distributions for different metal surfaces were calculated using the functional integration method. This approach enables the exchange-correlation effects to be correctly considered and makes it possible to account for the proper field-effect for broad field ranges without using the perturbation theory. The results of calculations are compared with the field-ion microscopic observations.