A new interpretation of the scanning tunneling microscope image of graphite

Epitaxial deposition of silver ultra-fine nano-clusters on defect-free surfaces of HOPG-derived few-layer graphene in a UHV multi-chamber by in situ STM, ex situ XPS, and ab initio calculations

“…The main experimental variables that influence the nano-Ag deposition dynamics are temperature, deposition rate, and the residual vacuum [ 20 , 25 ]. In order to achieve the goal of fabricating nano-structured materials that satisfy particular application requirements, it is essential to understand, at atomic scale, the basic thermodynamic and kinetic properties of deposited and nucleated species that determine the size, shape, and atomic structures of the self-assembled clusters [ 17 , 18 ]. To display the intrinsic properties of nano-structures, their interaction with the substrate should be significantly weaker than that in an epitaxial system and should be, however, strong enough to maintain mechanical bonding required for surface analysis.…”

“…The sticking coefficient of silver on nearly perfect HOPG, even at low temperature, is reported to be far below unity [ 5 , 14 ]. Metal clusters have a stronger interaction among themselves compared to the weaker Ag-HOPG interaction [ 14 , 17 , 22 ]. These challenging factors have resulted on a rather rare studies of metal clusters deposited on nearly perfect HOPG substrates [ 8 , 17 ].…”

“…Metal clusters have a stronger interaction among themselves compared to the weaker Ag-HOPG interaction [ 14 , 17 , 22 ]. These challenging factors have resulted on a rather rare studies of metal clusters deposited on nearly perfect HOPG substrates [ 8 , 17 ]. Previous XPS studies have shown that, as particle size becomes lower than about 5 to10 nm, shifts of metal core levels can often be observed [ 30 - 33 ].…”

“…Highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) has been extensively used as a prototypical inert and atomically flat model system in many nucleation and growth studies of silver (Ag) clusters and islands [ 11 , 17 - 20 ]. The use of HOPG as a substrate is advantageous in a sense that metallic properties of HOPG allow electron spectroscopy and microscopy experiments to be conducted without surface charging problems.…”

Study of a rhombohedral graphite X-ray filter using the sphere-in-contact model

“…[10] A high-tech application of graphite is in the protective material against excessive heat on the outside surface of spacecrafts [11] and as a substrate in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) [12] as it is easy to obtain contaminant free surfaces by means of cleaving the crystal along the basal plane using adhesive tape. Low mosaic-spread (0.4°±0.1°) highly-oriented-pyrolyticgraphite (HOPG) is used as a post-sample monochromator to filter out the Kβ radiation in X-ray sources.…”