Cleaved thin-film probes for scanning tunneling microscopy

Abstract

We introduce an alternative type of probe for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Instead of using a needle-like tip made from a piece of metallic wire, a sharp-edged cleaved insulating substrate, which is initially covered by a thin conductive film, is used. The sharp tip is formed at the intersection of the two cleaved sides. Using this approach a variety of materials for STM probes can be used, and functionalization of STM probes is possible. The working principle of different probes made of metallic (Pt, Co, and CoB), indium-tin oxide, as well as Cu/Pt and Co/Pt multilayer films are demonstrated by STM imaging of clean Cu(001) and Cu(111) surfaces as well as the epitaxial Co clusters on Cu(111).

Modeling Green's function measurements with two-tip scanning tunneling microscopy

“…In parallel we observed a similar resurgence of nanofabricated STM probes [19][20][21] that can be equipped with two (fixed) probes that are compatible with ultrahigh vacuum and low-temperature operation and potentially allow the integration in ultrastable single-tip STM systems currently available [21]. Advances in modern nanofabrication techniques such as focused ion beam milling and electron beam induced deposition could lead to a tip separation of a few tens of nanometers in the very near future.…”

Polymer Patterning with Self-Heating Atomic Force Microscope Probes

“…Afterward, we formed a sharp tip by double cleaving a substrate as it was already demonstrated in our pilot study. 12 The sharp tip is formed at the intersection of propagating cleaving lines (Figure 3b,c).…”

“…The sharpness of this probe is good enough to obtain atomic resolution in STM as confirmed in our previous report. 12 We succeed to fix the FPP on a modified quartz tuning fork force sensor (Figure 2c) and utilize it also in AFM. The FPP can easily be tailored because it has planar geometry with a relatively wide and flat face.…”

Fabrication of on-chip probes for double-tip scanning tunneling microscopy

“…Existing on-chip scanning probes have already contributed in several branches such as parallel AFM [23], scanning near field microscopy [24], scanning Hall probes [25,26], scanning SQUID probes [27], among others. However the development and use of integrated STM tips has been limited [28][29][30][31]. Recent proof-of-principle experi-ments have demonstrated that such single tip probes can in fact meet the stringent criteria that STM brings [29] even under ultra-high vacuum and low temperature conditions [16].…”

“…However the development and use of integrated STM tips has been limited [28][29][30][31]. Recent proof-of-principle experi-ments have demonstrated that such single tip probes can in fact meet the stringent criteria that STM brings [29] even under ultra-high vacuum and low temperature conditions [16].…”