Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Faculty of Physics,
64/13, Volodymyrska str., 01601 Kyiv, Ukraine; e-mail: sgr@univ.kiev.ua

Abstract. Gd 20 Co 80 alloy was studied applying experimental methods of spectral ellipsometry, atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy. The experimental results exhibit the eutectic two-phase structure of this alloy. Clusters of a phase with a lower content had a lesser concentration of free carriers, which resulted in smaller tunnel currents during the measurements. To analyze the experimental data, a theoretical approach was developed, which was based both on the quantum-mechanical methods of configurational interaction and on three-diagonal Toeplitz matrices formalism. This approach allowed us to describe in detail the energy bands formation process in solid clusters with a relatively small quantity of atoms, which as a consequence enabled to describe the Shockley surface states as well as the existence of a surface layer with partially formed energy bands. Spectral-ellipsometric measurements of Gd 20 Co 80 alloy thin films confirmed a significant difference between the measured optical constants for 20-nm thick films and larger films. Quantum-mechanical molecular calculus allowed to obtain optical constants for several supercells of Gd-Co chemical compounds and confirmed the acquired experimental and theoretical results.

Keywords:gadolinium cobalt alloy, Shockley surface states, configuration interaction.

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