Stick-slip movement of a scanned tip on a graphite surface in scanning force microscopy

Abstract

An experimental and theoretical study on the nature of the movement of a scanned tip on a graphite surface is presented. A comparison between theory and experiment demonstrates that the lateral forces occurring during scanning are strongly affected by the so-called “stick-slip“ movement of the tip. The experimentally observed force maps are identified to represent “hollow-site resolution“ instead of “atomic resolution“.