Lateral Manipulation of Single Defect on Insulating Surface Using Noncontact Atomic Force Microscope

Abstract

A single atomic defect on an ionic crystal surface was manipulated at the atomic level using an atomic force microscope. During raster scanning, the defect was manipulated at near the tip–sample distance and at room temperature. The defect, which is imaged as a sharp half-moon shape, moves continuously if the tip is close to the sample surface. The defect randomly moves along a zigzag or straight path or jumps long distances. The movement of the defect on an insulator is complex in contrast to that on semiconductors. The defect moves suddenly owing to the tip approaching the surface when the distance feedback is overshot under the condition of a large difference in frequency shift between the feedback set point and a weak interaction on the defect.

Role of tip apices in scanning force spectroscopy on alkali halides at room temperature—chemical nature of the tip apex and atomic-scale deformations

“…Residual charge decorated the steps. More details about the experiment can be found in [22]. Birdʼs-eye view of NC-SFM topographic image (Δz, gray, non-filtered) and two-dimensional frequency shift map (Δf, color) on a KCl(001) surface.…”