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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

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Book cover Surface Science Techniques

Part of the book series: Springer Series in Surface Sciences ((SSSUR,volume 51))

Abstract

The Nobel Prize-awarded invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has profoundly revolutionized contemporary science and technology. The STM has enabled individual atoms and molecules to be imaged, probed and handled with an unprecedented precision, thereby essentially contributing to our current understanding of the world at the nanoscale. Together with its offspring, the atomic force microscope (AFM), the STM is considered as the main innovation behind the birth of nanotechnology. This chapter is an elementary introduction to STM and to its most recent uses. Topics include a basic treatment of the underlying theory of tunneling, the description of the most commonly used experimental setups, a survey of the atomic-scale spectroscopic capabilities (scanning tunneling spectroscopy, STS) and an overview of atomic manipulation experiments.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Here the convention is adopted to take the tip as a reference since experimentally the voltage is often applied to the sample while the tip is grounded. If V is the bias voltage, the energy for an electron in the sample will change by −eV, i.e. it will decrease for positive values of V.

  2. 2.

    The case of an inelastic tunneling process will be considered in Sect. 19.5.7.

  3. 3.

    Expression (19.7) is valid only for V>0. For V<0 the integrand remains identical but the integration limits become −e|V| and 0.

  4. 4.

    Other metallic elements and even semiconductor materials have been used as tips for specific STM applications.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by EPSRC (EP/D000165/1); A. Della Pia was funded through a WPRS scholarship of the University of Warwick.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, The University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK

    Ada Della Pia & Giovanni Costantini

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  1. Ada Della Pia
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Correspondence to Giovanni Costantini .

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  1. , Department of Physics, University of Genoa, Via Dodecaneso 33, Genoa, 16146, Italy

    Gianangelo Bracco

  2. , Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Allegaten 55, Bergen, 5007, Svalbard

    Bodil Holst

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Della Pia, A., Costantini, G. (2013). Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. In: Bracco, G., Holst, B. (eds) Surface Science Techniques. Springer Series in Surface Sciences, vol 51. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34243-1_19

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