2024 Impact factor 2.8
Hadrons and Nuclei

EPJ AP Review - Imaging, single atom contact and single atom manipulations at low temperature

The LT-UHV-4-STM head and a 5.12 x 5.12 nm2 STM image of a letter C constructed atom by atom with 6 Au ad-atoms on Au(111) using here scanner PS3. I = 50 pA, V = 500 mV with ΔZ = 0.12 nm. Single atom manipulations tunnel resistance: 333 KΩ.

The new ScientaOmicron LT-UHV scanning tunneling microscope is installed at Pico-Lab CEMES-CNRS (Toulouse) with its 4 STM scanners performing on the same surface. At 4.3 K, we report state-of-the-art STM experiments on Au(111) usually performed on the most stable single tip LT-UHV scanning tunneling microscopes.

Operating the 4 scanners independently or in parallel with an inter tip apex distance lower than 100 nm, the ΔZ stability is better than 2 pm per STM. Single Au atom manipulations were performed on Au(111) recording the pulling, sliding or pushing signal. When contacting one Au ad-atom, a jump to contact leads to a perfect linear low voltage I-V characteristics with no averaging. Two tips surface conductance measurements were also performed with one lock-in and in a floating sample mode to capture the Au(111) surface states via two STM tips dI/dV characteristics. This new instrument is exactly 4 times as precise as a single tip LT-UHV STM.

Editors-in-Chief
David Blaschke, Silvia Leoni and Dario Vretenar
It has been a pleasure to work with you since we submitted our draft last September, and I wanted to thank you for your help during all stages of the publication process. Please extend our gratitude to the whole EPJA team.

Manuel Zambrana, Institut fuer Kernphysik, University of Mainz, Germany

ISSN (Electronic Edition): 1434-601X

© Società Italiana di Fisica and
Springer-Verlag