Selecting the tip electron orbital for scanning tunneling microscopy imaging with sub-aangstroem lateral resolution

We report on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies performed with single crystalline W[001] tips on a graphite(0001) surface. Results of distance-dependent STM experiments with sub-aangstroem lateral resolution and density functional theory electronic structure calculations show how to control...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Europhysics letters 2010-12, Vol.92 (4)
Main Authors: Chaika, AN, Nazin, S S, Semenov, V N, Bozhko, SI, Luebben, O, Krasnikov, SA, Radican, K, Shvets, I V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crystal structure
Density functional theory
Electron orbitals
Imaging
Mathematical analysis
Scanning tunneling microscopy
Tungsten
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Summary:We report on scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies performed with single crystalline W[001] tips on a graphite(0001) surface. Results of distance-dependent STM experiments with sub-aangstroem lateral resolution and density functional theory electronic structure calculations show how to controllably select one of the tip electron orbitals for high-resolution STM imaging. This is confirmed by experimental images reproducing the shape of the 5d sub(xz, yz) and 5d sub(x) super(2)− y super(2) tungsten atomic orbitals. The presented data demonstrate that the application of oriented single crystalline probes can provide further control of spatial resolution and expand the capabilities of STM.
ISSN:0295-5075
1286-4854
DOI:10.1209/0295-5075/92/46003