Abstract
STM is a surface microscope with extremely high spatial resolution, which enables us to see atoms on surfaces. When a sharp metal needle is located at a very proximate distance (~1 nm) from the sample surface (left panel in Fig. 97.1), tiny amount of electrical flow, called a tunneling current, is induced between them. Since the current is so sensitive to the variation in the tip-sample gap distance, atomic-scale surface corrugation can be detected by monitoring the current during the lateral scanning of the tip over the surface.
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Hasegawa, Y. (2018). Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. In: The Surface Science Society of Japan (eds) Compendium of Surface and Interface Analysis. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6156-1_97
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-6156-1_97
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