Theory of real space imaging of Fermi surface parts

Lounis, S.; Zahn, P.; Dederichs, P. H.; Mertig, I.; Blügel, S.; Wenderoth, M.; Weismann, A.; Ulbrich, R. G.

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.83.035427

Journal Article

Theory of real space imaging of Fermi surface parts

Lounis, S.FZJ* ; Zahn, P. ; Weismann, A. ; Wenderoth, M. ; Ulbrich, R. G. ; Mertig, I. ; Dederichs, P. H.FZJ* ; Blügel, S.FZJ*

2011
APS College Park, Md.

Physical review / B 83(3), 035427 (2011) [10.1103/PhysRevB.83.035427]

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Please use a persistent id in citations: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/10949 doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.83.035427

Abstract: A scanning tunneling microscope can be used to visualize in real space effects provided by Fermi surfaces with buried impurities far below substrates acting as local probes [Weismann et al. Science 323, 1190 (2009)]. After scattering at buried impurities, anisotropic electronic wave oscillations are observed on the surface as hot spots: The experiments exhibit strongly enhanced intensities in certain directions and much weaker intensities in other directions. A theory describing these features is developed based on the stationary phase approximation for the Friedel oscillations and taking into account the band structure of the host material. It is demonstrated how the Fermi surface of a material, for instance, through Fermi contours' critical points, acts as a mirror focusing electrons that scatter at hidden impurities which allow the projection of parts of the Fermi surface, a quantity defined in reciprocal space, onto real space.

Keyword(s): J

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Physics, Condensed Matter

Note: This work was supported by the ESF EUROCORES Programme SONS under Contract No. ERAS-CT-2003-980409, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Priority Programme SPP1153, and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Collaborative Research Centre SFB602. S. L. gratefully acknowledges support by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation through the Feodor Lynen Program and wishes to thank D. L. Mills for discussions and hospitality. Some of the computations were performed at the supercomputer JUROPA at the Forschungszentrum Julich.

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