THEORETICAL ASPECTS OF SCANNING-TUNNELING-MICROSCOPY, SPECTROSCOPY AND ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY ON CLEAN METAL-SURFACES

An overview of the results of the three-dimensional scattering theoret ical approach to STM, STS and AFM on clean metal surfaces is presented with special emphasis on the issues of the role of surface states, th e effects of the transition from tunneling to ballistic transport, the image inversion and mirroring of ST spectra, the effects of tip-sampl e interaction and the dynamical relaxation in the sample. Within a the ory, going beyond the mean-field approach to the tunneling phenomena, we provide an explanation of the long-lasting puzzle of the anomalousl y high tip height corrugation amplitude on the Al(111) surface in conj unction with the STS on the same surface.