Electronic and magnetic properties of interfaces

During the last years much attention has been devoted to the investigation of the electronic properties of surfaces and interfaces from first-principle calculations. The microscopic physics of a great number of systems has been investigated in details and many mechanisms and processes have been focused and understood. First-principle calculations are mainly based on the density functional theory in its local density approximation. Recently a substantial advancement in the calculation of the electronic states has been achieved by the computation of quasi-particle energies including self-energy correction. The computational techniques used can be divided between all-electron and pseudopotential approaches. All-electron calculations are usually performed within the linear-method scheme that strongly simplifies the computational problem. After a brief introduction of the theoretical framework and methods, we will present the application of linear methods to the investigation of a) the clean surface of a semiconductor, b) the metal-semiconductor interface and c) the magnetic properties of surfaces and interfaces.