UNOCCUPIED ELECTRONIC BAND-STRUCTURE OF NA ON CU(111) AS STUDIED BY INVERSE PHOTOEMISSION

We have determined the unoccupied part of the electronic structure of sodium on Cu(111), employing k-resolved inverse photoemission in the isochromat mode. For Na coverages above 0.15 monolayer, an image-potential surface state is observed 2.3 eV above E(F). For the completed p(2 X 2) Na phase at 0.25-monolayer coverage, a pronounced Na 3p(z)-derived feature occurs 0.4 eV above E(F), which exhibits a nearly-free-electron-like energy dispersion. For wave vectors k parallel-to greater-than-or-equal-to 0.6 angstrom-1, the unoccupied part of the Na 3s band appears close to the Fermi level. We compare our results with recent band-structure calculations for free and adsorbed Na monolayers.