Decay of electronic excitations at metal surfaces

Recent experimental work has reached an accurate determination of surface-state linewidth by scanning tunneling spectroscopy, photoemission and directly in the time domain by two-photon photoemission. The concomitant progress in the theoretical description of surface-state decay has led to an excellent agreement between theory and experiment for low-index noble-metal surfaces. The understanding of the behavior of s–p-like surface states and image-potential states on these surfaces constitutes the basis for the application to more complicated systems.