Image potential near corrugated interfaces

We have developed a perturbation formalism to compute the image potential f or a point charge placed near an interface separating two media of differen t dielectric constants. By using the Green's identity, the volume integral equation is cast into a surface integral equation; thus, it greatly simplif ies numerical solutions and yields accurate results for interfaces of arbit rary shape. The integral equation is solved numerically and the image poten tial is obtained for a periodic interface. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. A il rights reserved.