Ab initio study of the double row model of the Si(553)-Au reconstruction

Using x-ray diffraction Ghose et al. [Surf. Sci. {bf 581} (2005) 199] have recently produced a structural model for the quantum-wire surface Si(553)-Au. This model presents two parallel gold wires located at the step edge. Thus, the structure and the gold coverage are quite different from previous proposals. We present here an ab initio study using density functional theory of the stability, electronic band structure and scanning tunneling microscopy images of this model.