Quantum well structures in thin metal films: simple model physics in reality?

The quantum wells formed by ultra-thin metallic films on appropriate metallic substrates provide a real example of the simple undergraduate physics problem in quantum mechanics of the `particle in a box'. Photoemission provides a direct probe of the energy of the resulting quantized bound states. In this review the relationship of this simple model system to the real metallic quantum well (QW) is explored, including the way that the exact nature of the boundaries can be taken into account in a relative simple way through the `phase accumulation model'. More detailed aspects of the photoemission probe of QW states are also discussed, notably of the physical processes governing the photon energy dependence of the cross sections, of the influence of temperature, and the processes governing the observed peak widths. These aspects are illustrated with the results of experiments and theoretical studies, especially for the model systems Ag on Fe(100), Ag on V(100) and Cu on fcc Co(100).