Characterization of gold surfaces for use as substrates in scanning tunneling microscopy studies

Abstract

We have used scanning tunneling microscopy to characterize the surface of epitaxial gold on mica in air. We find that these surfaces are simple to prepare, are relatively inert to exposure to air or to water, and have atomically flat terraces extending for up to several hundred angstroms. The observed topography is consistent with the Au(111) surface. It is possible to produce bumps on the surface of less than 100 Å in size in a controlled manner by pulsing the tip voltage while scanning. Self-diffusion of gold is observed in the decay of written features and well as in the movement of existing terrace edges. In some cases, a periodicity in both the geometry of terrace edges and the spatial variation of surface diffusion rates suggest the presence of the 22×1 surface reconstruction.

The effects of strain on STM lithography on HS-ssDNA/Au (111) surface

“…[13–18] Compared to these reported results, the data presented in this paper show both similarities and differences. The similarities are, for example, the stripe height and length, the growth behaviors, and the independence of the stripe orientation from the original step edge and the STM fast-scan direction.…”

Nano-écriture sur couche d'or

“…dans la littérature : par application de pulses de tension entre la pointe et l'échantillon, il est possible de créer des modifications (trous ou dépôts) de taille allant de 3 à 6 nm sur la couche d'or [3][4][5][6][7][8][9]. Cor est un candidat intéressant pour l'étude de la nano-lithographie, autant pour sa planéité à l'échelle atomique, que pour sa relative stabilité à l'air.…”

“…Le coefficient de cette "auto-diffusion" est de l'ordre de 10-14 à 10-16 cm2/s [14,15]. Ce type de diffusion sera nommé la diffusion rapide des atomes d'or.…”

Conductivity of an atomically defined metallic interface

“…The Oliver-Pharr method (8), for instance, does not take into account adhesive effects or material pile up around the indenter, both of which are likely to be present at these size scales and both of which affect the contact area. Additionally, at these near-atomic length scales, mass transport mechanisms not commonly associated with nanoindentation, such as point-defect diffusion, will come into play, particularly for metal surfaces with a high mobility, like Au(111) (27,28). These mechanisms will act to lower stress and increase the contact area relative to the continuum-mechanical prediction.…”