Ordered Au films are grown on top of a thin (seven-layer) Cu film acting as a buffer between An and a Si(111) substrate and characterized with synchrotron radiation photoemission spectroscopy. A sharp Shockley surface state characteristic of Au(111) is seen in the valence band spectra together with structures in the sp part of the band that disperse toward the sp band edge for growing film thickness. These structures are ascribed to quantum well effects. The Au film shows sharp (111) low energy electron diffraction patterns for a film thickness above eight layers. (c) 2007 American Vacuum Society.