Journal
JOURNAL OF VACUUM SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY B
Volume 28, Issue 3, Pages -Publisher
A V S AMER INST PHYSICS
DOI: 10.1116/1.3294706
Keywords
atomic force microscopy; beryllium; delamination; field emission; scanning tunnelling microscopy; work function
Ask authors/readers for more resources
To obtain maximal resolution in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy, the size of the protruding tip orbital has to be minimized. Beryllium as tip material is a promising candidate for enhanced resolution because a beryllium atom has just four electrons, leading to a small covalent radius of only 96 pm. Besides that, beryllium is conductive and has a high elastic modulus, which is a necessity for a stable tip apex. However, beryllium tips that are prepared ex situ are covered with a robust oxide layer, which cannot be removed by just heating the tip. Here, the authors present a successful preparation method that combines the heating of the tip by field emission and a mild collision with a clean metal plate. That method yields a clean, oxide-free tip surface as proven by a work function of Phi(expt)=5.5 eV as deduced from a current-distance curve. Additionally, a STM image of the Si-(111)-(7x7) is presented to prove the single-atom termination of the beryllium tip. (C) 2010 American Vacuum Society. [DOI: 10.1116/1.3294706]
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available