Mesoscopic self-structuring on metal surfaces: Geometry and electronic structure

The relation between surface stress and surface reconstruction and the electronic origin of surface stress are briefly discussed. Three examples of stress induced mesoscopic self-structuring on metal surfaces are presented, namely O/Cu(110), Au(lll) and Pt(110). While the principles underlying the domain formation on the first two systems seem to be understood quite well, the origin of the periodic hill-and-valley structure of Pt(110) is not yet clear. The confinement of electronic surface states in stress induced quasione-dimensional domains was studied recently by photoemission on O/Cu(110) and by scanning tunneling spectroscopy on Au(lll). The results are briefly reviewed. The same basic effects were found in the two different studies.