End electronic states in Cu chains on Cu(111): Ab initio calculations

The state-of-the-art ab initio calculations are performed to study the effect of surface-state electrons of Cu(111) on electronic states in Cu chains. We reveal the existence of localized electronic edge states at energies close to the surface-state band edge of Cu(111). These states are shown to be similar to the bound states at single adatoms on Cu(111) recently detected by the low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy [Limot et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 036805 (2005) and Olsson et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 206803 (2004)].