arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to L. Wirtz.
Progress in the study of collisions of multiply charged ions with surfaces is reviewed with the help of a few recent examples. They range from fundamental quasi-one electron processes to highly complex ablation and material modification processes. Open questions and possible future directions will be discussed.
We present a semiclassical theory for transport through open billiards of arbitrary convex shape that includes diffractively scattered paths at the lead openings. Starting from a Dyson equation for the semiclassical Green's function we develop a diagrammatic expansion that allows a systematic summation over classical paths and pseudo-paths which consist of classical paths joined by diffractive scatterings (``kinks''). This renders the inclusion of an exponentially proliferating number of pseudo-path combinations numerically tractable for both regular and chaotic billiards. For a circular billiard and the Bunimovich stadium the path sum leads to a good agreement with the quantum path length power spectrum up to long path length. Furthermore, we find excellent numerical agreement with experimental studies of quantum scattering in microwave billiards where pseudo-paths provide a significant contribution.
We present a theoretical study of the optical absorption spectrum of small boron-nitride and carbon nanotubes using time-dependent density-functional theory and the random phase approximation. Both for C and BN tubes, the absorption of light polarized perpendicular to the tube-axis is strongly suppressed due to local field effects. Since BN-tubes are wide band-gap insulators, they only absorb in the ultra-violet energy regime, independently of chirality and diameter. In comparison with the spectra of the single C and BN-sheets, the tubes display additional fine-structure which stems from the (quasi-) one-dimensionality of the tubes and sensitively depends on the chirality and tube diameter. This fine structure can provide additional information for the assignment of tube indices in high resolution optical absorption spectroscopy.
The inelastic electron tunneling spectrum (IETS)of highly oriented pyrolitic graphite (HOPG) has been measured with scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) at 6K. The observed spectral features are in very good agreement with the vibrational density of states (vDOS) of graphite calculated from first principles. We discuss the enhancement of certain phonon modes by phonon-assisted tunneling in STS based on the restrictions imposed by the electronic structure of graphite. We also demonstrate for the first time the local excitation of surface-plasmons in IETS which are detected at an energy of 40 meV.