Growth and Electronic Structure of Thin Epitaxial Metal Layers

摘要

The thesis deals with the physics and chemistry of thin epitaxial metal layers. Various substrates are used to study the structure, morphology and electronic structure of thin epitaxial metal films. In the first part of the thesis, the author used layered transition metal dichalcogenide compounds as substrates for the deposition of different metals. These substrates have a sandwich structure in which two-dimensional subunits are held together by weak van der Waals forces. These layered compounds exhibit fascinating structural and electronic properties which are related to their two-dimensional crystal structure. The second part of the thesis deals with the relation between the local interface structure and the potential barrier (or Schottky barrier) at Pb/Si(111) junctions. The search for the fundamental mechanisms determining Schottky barrier heights at many different metal-semiconductor contacts only had a rather limited success so far because in many cases, a detailed characterization of the interface was lacking.