Electronic Structure and Magnetism of Metal Surfaces, Overlayers and Interfaces

Abstract

As is clear from the subject of this NATO Institute, the importance of low-dimensional systems (including surfaces, interfaces and thin films) in determining the physical properties of technologically important materials has stimulated theoretical efforts to determine from first principles a detailed understanding of their chemical, electronic and mechanical properties. Fortunately, this has now been become possible as a result of the dramatic advances in condensed matter theory made in the last decade, driven in large part by new and sophisticated experiments on high purity materials which have been well and carefully characterized. Particularly in electronic structure, these advances may be attributable directly to the close collaboration of theoretical and experimental researchers. Indeed, the new-found ability to apply fundamental theoretical concepts to real materials (rather than to simple model systems) made possible by utilizing the continued rapid development of computer power, has served to fill the increasingly urgent demand of experimentalists for theoretical interpretation of their data. Also, in some cases, these computational efforts can be used to provide data which would be currently impossible or impractical to obtain experimentally. This development has been an essential element in the phenomenal growth seen in this area of materials science.