The mechanism for visible light emission from the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been investigated theoretically by adapting a theory for light emitting tunnel junctions (LETJ). From the analysis of the calculated results and available experimental data, the following picture emerges. The tunneling current first excites localized surface plasmons (LSP) that are localized in a region of a few tens of Angstroms between the STM tip-front and the sample surface. Some of them decay into surface plasmon polaritons (SPP) that propagate along the sample surface. There are two channels of light emission: one is direct emission from LSP and the other is emission through SPP. The relative
branching ratio between these two channels depends on the experimental configuration. The effect of sample surface roughness is very small and negligible.
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A simple reliable preparation method of silver tips for scanning tunneling microscopy imaging with atomic resolution is presented. The procedure is based on two-step electrochemical processing; ac electropolishing and subsequent dc electroetching. The quality of the tip is improved by applying high bias voltage pulses while the tip is within tunneling range. This indicates that the end of the tips are sharpened by field evaporation of silver ions.
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