Electron density contour smoothening for epitaxial Ag islands on Ag(100)

Rocking curves acquired with thermal energy He-atom scattering indicate that for small 2D Ag islands grown on Ag(100) at 200 K, the apparent step height normal to the surface is reduced by about 0.6 Å compared to the step height calculated on the basis of bulk separation. For higher growth temperatures this effect is not observed. SPA-LEED measurements indicate that this behavior cannot be explained with a corresponding relaxation of island atoms. Rather, it may be attributed to a smoothening of the electronic corrugation (Smoluchowski effect), which is probed by the He atoms and which can be expected to occur for small and/or closely spaced islands. The dependence on the growth temperature indicates that this effect is, indeed, related to the size and proximity of the islands, being most pronounced for closely spaced islands consisting of a few tens of atoms only. These findings suggest that the difference between the morphology of the electron density contours, probed by methods which are sensitive to the density of valence electrons, such as atom scattering or scanning tunneling microscopy, and the morphology at the atomic core level is significant for small metal structures on metal surfaces.