Link between adatom resonances and the Cu(111) Shockley surface state.

Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at 7 K was used to assemble and characterize native adatom islands of successive size on the Cu(111) surface. Starting from the single adatom we observe the formation of a series of quantum states which merge into the well known two-dimensional Shockley surface state in the limit of large islands. Our experiments reveal a natural physical link between this fundamental surface property and the sp(z) hybrid resonance associated with the single Cu/Cu(111) adatom.