In this paper, we study surface atomic structures of etched polycrystalline copper in dilute HCl using contact force mode atomic force microscopy (AFM). The microstructures, i.e. the average grain size, the surface roughness and the section analysis, were investigated before examination at an atomic level. For the present work, we selected for investigation the topmost grain, assumed to be fccf111g, which is known to be the most stable face thermodynamically. The hexagonal structure of the ( √ 3 × √ 3)R30°-Cl is well resolved. The imperfections of crystal grains, e.g. dislocations, steps and kinks of the adsorbed layer that are a reflection of the underlying substrate, are also revealed. Moreover, the dependence of corrugation amplitudes on the contact forces, which was anticipated from previous simulation results, is confirmed. Our experimental result has shown that the corrugation amplitude decreased as the imaging set point (equivalent to the contact force) is lowered, i.e. as the set point is decreased from −3.0 to −5.0 V the corrugation amplitude reduces from 0.46 ± 0.12 to 0.27 ± 0.07Å.
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