Analytical applications of scanning tunneling microscopy

Images of Adsorbates with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope: Theoretical Approaches to the Contrast Mechanism

“…More recently, STM images of isolated benzene molecules have been acquired at very low temperature on a Pt(111) surface. , One interesting and unexpected point is that, at high resolution, three different characteristic types of protrusions have been found. These images are not related with different STM imaging conditions, but should be associated with different types of benzene molecules on the surface.…”

Imaging Benzene Molecules and Phenyl Radicals on Cu{111}

“…Imaging with the STM is slow compared to chemical processes since the probe tip must be scanned mechanically to image an area of the surface , Here we reduce the diffusion rate of adsorbates by reducing the temperature so as to be able to observe single adsorbate motion. To this end, we have developed an UHV low-temperature STM to study the dynamics of atoms and molecules at dilute coverages on surfaces …”

Design, operation, and housing of an ultrastable, low temperature, ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscope

“…[7][8][9][10][11] Our research goals include the study of chemical and physical properties of surfaces on the atomic scale, development of an understanding of the mechanism͑s͒ by which the STM images adsorbates, and extending the analytical capabilities of the STM by developing new atomic-scale spectroscopies. 12 The apparatus described here was designed with the specific goal of recording vibrational spectra of single molecules via inelastic electron tun-neling spectroscopy ͑IETS͒. 13 Noise isolation dominated design considerations since the ability to measure the vibrational spectrum of a single molecule may require maintaining the tunneling junction separation effectively constant to within ϳ0.001 Å over some frequency band.…”