Evolution of the electronic structure of metallic multilayers from two to threedimensionality. A Full Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave calculation.

Full Potential Linearized Augmented Plane Wave calculations have been performed for epitaxial multilayers formed by the noble metals Ag and Cu with a thickness n up to 10 layers. The multilayers have a fcc lattice and are pure or compositionally modulated with a structure of the type Agn Cun or (AgCu)n. For n in the range 2,3 the density of states, evaluated at paramagnetic level, exhibits a sharp reduction of the bandwidth which is consistent with the reduced coordination of these structures. For n ≤ 5 the density of states in the central layers converges to the bulk value while the outer layers retain the narrow bandwidth found at n=2. Due to the absence of charge intermixing and hybridization, these features are shared by multilayers of all composition.