Investigation of the Ni(111) Shockley-like surface state using confinement to artificial nanostructures

The local density of states (LDOS) at the surface of nanostructures artificially created on the Ni(111) surface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS). Standing-waves patterns due to the confinement of a Shockley-like surface state are observed on nanoscale triangular islands obtained by an indentation technique. The characteristics of the dispersion of this state have been obtained from an analysis of the evolution of the LDOS modulations with the sample bias. The experimental data are discussed considering recent band structure calculations.