Scanning tunneling microscopy of the nonequilibrium interaction of impurity states at semiconductor surfaces

Interaction of two localized impurity states of Si atoms at a GaAs surface was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. The effects of a twofold “switching” on and off of the states of each of the interacting atoms, the tunneling-interaction-induced mutual level pulling of these states, and the level stabilization near EF were observed. These effects are explained in terms of the extended Anderson model.