The effect of disorder on the local density of electronic states at an interface

We have studied the effect of disorder on the local electronic structure in a model interface. In particular we follow the evolution of the local density of states with increasing disorder. To model the disorder we use a supercell approach in which a relatively large and disordered cluster is periodically repeated in two dimensions so as to form the interface. The degree of disorder within a given cluster is parametrized by the order parameter of a nearest neighbor lattice-gas model, in such a way as to interpolate between a perfectly ordered an a completely disordered interface. Cell configurations are sampled by means of Monte Carlo simulation of the lattice-gas model. For a given configuration, the local electronic structure is obtained by means of a Green function technique. An average over the sample configurations is then performed to obtain the average density of states for a set of values of the order parameter. We find that as the interface disorder increases there appears a new and characteristic feature in the local density of states. The relative weight of this feature grows with increasing disorder. For large band offsets the form of this feature is similar to that of a two-dimensional band, a fact which suggests that it might be due to that appearance of interface states. (author). 7 refs, 10 figs