Large potential steps at weakly interacting metal-insulator interfaces
Large potential steps at weakly interacting metal-insulator interfaces
Potential steps exceeding 1 eV are regularly formed at metal|insulator interfaces, even when the interaction between the materials at the interface is weak physisorption. From first-principles calculations on metal|$h\text{\ensuremath{-}}\mathrm{BN}$ interfaces we show that these potential steps are only indirectly sensitive to the interface bonding through the dependence of the binding …