Dynamics of very low energy photoelectrons interacting with image charge of Cs Cu(111) surface

We have measured the very low energy photoelectron spectra of Cs-covered Cu(111) surfaces, and determined the mechanism for the appearance of a spike structure due to the interaction of emitted electron with its image charge. At high Cs coverage of 0.10 and 0.14 monolayers (ML), the spike structure appeared at the vacuum level. No such structure was found at low coverage of 0.06 ML. The vacuum level at high coverage lies in the energy gap at the Γ̄ point in the surface Brillouin zone of the Cu(111) surface, while it lies outside the energy gap at low coverage. These results confirm the validity of our proposed mechanism that the spike structure appears when the vacuum level lies in the energy gap.