Atom manipulation on an insulating surface at room temperature

Abstract

Atomic manipulation enables us to fabricate a unique structure at the atomic scale. So far, many atomic manipulations have been reported on conductive surfaces, mainly at low temperature with scanning tunnelling microscopy, but atomic manipulation on an insulator at room temperature is still a long-standing challenge. Here we present a systematic atomic manipulation on an insulating surface by advanced atomic force microscopy, enabling construction of complex patterns such as a 'Swiss cross' of substitutional bromine ions in the sodium chloride surface.

Room-temperature-concerted switch made of a binary atom cluster

“…To date, a number of atomic-scale manipulations have been reported, where precisely controlled SPM tip-surface interactions are utilized to move single atoms/ molecules on surfaces in vertical and lateral directions. As reported in the previous studies, these interactions result in highly controllable processes, such as fabrication of artificial atomicscale structures [1][2][3][4][5] and control of quantum phenomena [6][7][8][9] , demonstrating the promising capability of SPM to fabricate atomic-scale functional devices.…”

Multiferroicity and skyrmions carrying electric polarization in GaV 4 S 8

“…The sizable polarization in GaV 4 S 8 may offer an efficient electric control of the SkL state as already demonstrated in Cu 2 OSeO 3 (12,53), which would be an important step in the development of skyrmion-based memory devices (3,54,55,56). This ambitious goal requires, at the first stage, the nano-scale observation of the polar pattern associated with the SkL using local probes such as scanning force and Kelvin-probe microscopy (57,58,59).…”

Tip-triggered Thermal Cascade Manipulation of Magic Number Gold–Fullerene Clusters in the Scanning Tunnelling Microscope

“…Further manipulation can be performed on the newly formed (C 60 ) 10 −Au 35 . Figure 2d−f shows the transformation of this (C 60 ) 10 −Au 35 cluster into a (C 60 ) 7 −Au 19 cluster.…”