Eur. Phys. J. B 75, 37-47 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2010-00097-2

Electronic structure and excitations on clean and nanostructured metal surfaces

¹ Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Paseo de Manuel Lardizabal 4, 20018 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain
² Departamento de Física de Materiales, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, and Centro de Física de Materiales - CFM (CSIC-UPV/EHU), Apdo. 1072, 20080 San Sebastián/Donostia, Basque Country, Spain
³ Elektrizitatea eta Elektronika Saila, Zientzia eta Teknologia Fakultatea, UPV/EHU 644 P.K., 48080 Bilbao, Spain
⁴ Tomsk State University, 634 Tomsk, Russia
⁵ Department of Theoretical Physics, Kostroma State University, 156961 Kostroma, Russia
⁶ Institute of Strength Physics and Materials Science, Pr. Academicheskii 2/1, 63402 Tomsk, Russia

Corresponding author: waptctce@ehu.es

Received: 16 November 2009
Published online: 24 March 2010

Abstract

We present a brief overview of recent studies and new theoretical results for electron-phonon interaction in the surface states on FCC(110) noble metal surfaces as well as in surface and quantum-well states of thin films. We discuss the oscillations of electron-phonon coupling parameter λ and the respective contribution to the lifetime broadening of these states. We analyse the effect of spin-orbit splitting of surface states on an electron-electron contribution to lifetimes of excited electrons (holes). Oscillations of the electron-electron contribution and quadratic dependence of the linewidth on energy is discussed for ultrathin Pb(111) films.