| dc.description.abstract | By means of atomic manipulation the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope (STM) can be used to build electronic quantum simulators. Previous work has proved CO on Cu(111) to be a reliable system for this. However, energy broadening due to coupling of the surface state with bulk states, poses a problem for the CO/Cu(111) system. In this thesis, thin Ag(111) films on Si(111) are examined as coupling with bulk states is impossible in the silicon band gap. It is shown that, by using an STM, manipulation of Ag adatoms is possible through which two quantum corrals and a dimer were realised. By fitting Gaussian functions to peaks in differential conductance spectra, the energy broadening was determined in terms of Full Width at Half Maximum (FWHM) values. Furthermore, muffin-tin calculations were performed and are compared to experimental observations. In the quantum corrals, 1s-like, 1p-like and 2s-like states were observed from analysing differential conductance spectra. In the dimer 1s-like and 1p-like bonding and anti-bonding states were observed. FWHM values are compared to that of quantum corrals on a CO/Cu(111) system from a previous study. Although direct comparison is not possible, FWHM values found on the Ag(111)/Si(111) system are in the order of tens of millivolts smaller than on the CO/Cu(111) system. Still, it is questioned whether bulk states were present or not due to a too thick Ag layer, having resulted in more energy broadening than expected. Overall, this thesis contributes to the search for electronic quantum simulators with higher energy resolution. | |
