Local force gradients on Si(111) during simultaneous scanning tunneling/atomic force microscopy


Ozer H. Ö., O'BRIEN S. J., PETHICA J. B.

APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS, cilt.90, sa.13, 2007 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

  • Yayın Türü: Makale / Tam Makale
  • Cilt numarası: 90 Sayı: 13
  • Basım Tarihi: 2007
  • Doi Numarası: 10.1063/1.2717115
  • Dergi Adı: APPLIED PHYSICS LETTERS
  • Derginin Tarandığı İndeksler: Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), Scopus
  • İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi Adresli: Hayır

Özet

The authors report simultaneous scanning tunneling and force imaging of Si(111) 7x7 with sub-angstrom oscillation amplitudes. Both constant height and constant current scans with tungsten tips/levers always showed larger attractive stiffness over corner holes than over adatoms, the opposite of theoretical expectations. Constant height scans show that this cannot be explained by interaction of tip motion with long range forces. Silicon levers, however, sometimes exhibited inversions of force contrast following local tip changes. The authors suggest that there may be charge variations between atomic sites on the surface, which produce electrostatic tip forces additional to the covalent forces usually regarded as dominant. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.