Electronic properties of a simple metal-metal interface

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Abstract
The properties of metal-metal interfaces are of interest in many metallurgical applications. These include grain boundaries, crack growth, friction, and bimetallic adhesion. The present work is a study of the electronic properties of a simple bimetallic junction. The methods employed to investigate the interface are the Green's-function technique and the phase-shift method. We calculate the Green's function of a simple junction within the tight-binding approximation. The conditions for the occurrence of bound states are deduced from the poles of the Green's function. Using the phase-shift method we derive an expression for the change in density of states due to the creation of the interface. From this expression we derive the corresponding single-particle contribution to the interface energy and the interface specific heat. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.17.3904 © 1978 The American Physical Society