SPATIAL-DISTRIBUTION OF THE WAVE-FUNCTIONS OF A GRAPHITE SURFACE STUDIED BY USE OF METASTABLE-ATOM ELECTRON-SPECTROSCOPY

Rare-gas metastable atoms (He*,Ne*,Ar*) were shown to deexcite on a graphite surface via the direct Auger deexcitation process. This is the first observed case in which the resonance ionization of the metastable atoms is suppressed on the surface with empty levels having the same energy as those of the highest occupied levels of the metastable atoms. The electron emission spectra correlate closely with the density-of-states maxima originating from the bands, while the contribution from the sp2-hybridized bands is almost missing. These findings can be interpreted in terms of the spatial distribution of the wave functions of the graphite surface. © 1990 The American Physical Society.