Embedding at surfaces

In this article I describe the embedding method and review its application to surface problems. In this method an embedding potential is added on to t he Hamiltonian of the region of interest - here the surface - to take full account of the effect of the substrate. After deriving the method, applicat ions to the electronic structure of several surfaces are reviewed, and adso rbate studies are described. The method can also be used to study confined electrons, and surface applications of this are given. Finally, the real sp ace embedding method is related to embedding in the linear combination of a tomic orbitals method. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.