Potential energy landscape of metallic Moire patterns

The modulation of the electronic structure of cobalt islands on Cu(111) by the Moire pattern of an Ag overlayer is investigated. Acquisition of tunneling spectroscopy maps reveals a local modification of both the energy and the amplitude of the cobalt-related d-states on the length scale of the periodicity of the Moire superstructure. The modulation of the energy can be rationalized by the spatially varying hybridization of the cobalt atoms with the silver sp-bands. We propose that Moire modulated d-states at metal interfaces with a periodicity of a few nanometers may provide a novel route to manipulate the chemical reactivity of surfaces and might serve as a template which modulates magnetic properties such as the spin density.