Interaction between metallic surfaces

Abstract

The electron density profiles, potentials and charge overlap forces between two like pieces of jellium have been computed as functions of the separation. Results are presented for the range of bulk metallic electron densities. Lattice effects are included via perturbation theory, and the total force acting between the halves is shown for Al (111) faces. An efficient scheme of iteration for self-consistent density functional calculations is described in the appendix.