CORRELATION BETWEEN SCREENING AND ELECTRON EFFECTIVE-MASS ACROSS THE NONMETAL-METAL TRANSITION IN ULTRATHIN FILMS

Angle-resolved photoemission and resonant photoemission have been used to determine the relative changes of the electron effective mass and the screening parameter across the nonmetal to metal transition in the magnesium thin films on Mo(112). Both the screening length and the electron effective mass exhibit a gradual change with Mg coverage in the transition range between half and one monolayer. The relationship of these two different measures of metallicity is in surprisingly good agreement with the relationship predicted by theory for the Mott-Hubbard transition. Our results indicate the importance of electron-electron correlation within the overlayer.