Long-lived adsorbate states on metal surfaces

Abstract

It has been shown recently that the peculiarities of the band structure of a metal can qualitatively influence the electron tunnelling between an adsorbate and a metal surface, the so-called resonant charge transfer (RCT). The presence of a projected band gap along the normal to the surface in the case of Cu(111) has been shown to lead to a blocking of the RCT in the case of Cs/Cu(111), resulting in the existence of a very long-lived excited state. Such long-lived states are potentially very important for surface reaction mechanisms invoking a transient state as an intermediate. Various systems: Cs, model M⁻ negative ion of pπ symmetry, CO adsorbed on Cu(111), are investigated in order to determine the conditions for the blocking of the RCT and the existence of long-lived states.