Relation Between Surface Crystallography and Surface Electron Structure of the Superlattice

Abstract

Profound gradual changes of surface state energies were predicted for varying surface terminations of the periodic crystal potential in one-dimensional models.1 This situation can be realized in superlattices with different thicknesses of topmost layers. For the ideally terminated (100) surface of a very thin superlattice (GaAs)2(AlAs)2, the shift of the energy of the surface state over the whole minigap in the lower part of the valence band has been found for different terminations of the topmost layer. In the center of the surface Brillouin zone the surface state shift follows model trends. The changes of the energy distribution of photoemitted electrons as determined from the one-step photoemission calculation2 indicate that experimental observation by the surface-sensitive technique of angle-resolved photoemission should be feasible, and preliminary data indicate this. The results show a straigthforward tuning of surface electron structure by geometrical means.