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Science 27 February 2009:
Vol. 323. no. 5918, pp. 1190 - 1193
DOI: 10.1126/science.1168738
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Reports

Seeing the Fermi Surface in Real Space by Nanoscale Electron Focusing

Alexander Weismann,1,2 Martin Wenderoth,1* Samir Lounis,3 Peter Zahn,4 Norbert Quaas,1 Rainer G. Ulbrich,1 Peter H. Dederichs,3 Stefan Blügel3

The Fermi surface that characterizes the electronic band structure of crystalline solids can be difficult to image experimentally in a way that reveals local variations. We show that Fermi surfaces can be imaged in real space with a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope when subsurface point scatterers are present: in this case, cobalt impurities under a copper surface. Even the very simple Fermi surface of copper causes strongly anisotropic propagation characteristics of bulk electrons that are confined in beamlike paths on the nanoscale. The induced charge density oscillations on the nearby surface can be used for mapping buried defects and interfaces and some of their properties.

1 IV Physikalisches Institut, Universität Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
2 Courant Research Center Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany.
3 Institut für Festkörperforschung and Institut for Advanced Simulation, Forschungszentrum Jülich, 52425 Jülich, Germany.
4 Fachbereich Physik, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg, 06099 Halle, Germany.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: wenderoth{at}ph4.physik.uni-goettingen.de

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)