Charge confinement in epitaxial metallic islands: a study at semiempirical level

Hartree-Fock calculations at semiempirical level, using the extended Debey-Hueckel approximation, and tests calculations using LDA with pseudopotentials are used to describe the dispersion relationship, the density of states and the conduction charge of homoepitaxial islands formed by Cu and Ag. The islands have a three-dimensional shape with a dimension of the height and basis in the range of the bulk Fermi wavelength. The calculations indicate that at these small sizes the island steps, at variance with the ones on vicinal surfaces, act as weak and permeable barriers. In fact, the electronic charge retains bulk-like features, though faint traces of confinement can be identified.