At moderate arsenic fluxes and substrate temperatures (470 • C) InAs grows on Si (100) surface in the Stranski-Krastanow growth mode with the formation of mesoscopic dislocated clusters on top of a two-dimensional periodically corrugated InAs wetting layer. In contrast, at lower temperatures (250 • C) a dense array of self-organized nanoscale InAs quantum dots of uniform size and shape is formed. These quantum dots, when grown on a Si buffer layer and covered with a Si cap, give a luminescence line at about 1.3 µm.
Herein, I(V) characteristics of the tunnel junction between the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) Pt/Ir probe and atomically flat Au film on mica using ultrahigh vacuum STM is investigated. To ensure cleanness and flatness of the Au films, optimization of the substrate annealing and Ar plasma treatment are performed. The obtained technological parameters allow to drastically improve the reproducibility of I(V) measurements. The analysis of I(V), d2I/dV2 (V), and Fowler–Nordheim plots is conducted, and the presence of the features in the bias region near 1.8 V in the form of peak and minimum, peak and anomalous extra minimum, respectively is demonstrated. The direct optical measurements confirm that the features on I(V) curves are associated with the generation of photons from the STM probe‐sample gap, governed by inelastic tunneling processes. The proposed I(V) analysis approach is used for indirect sensing and investigation of the light emission in the tunnel junction offering a powerful tool for the studies of the photonic sources with deeply subwavelength dimensions.
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