Metallic nature of the alpha-Sn/Ge(111) surface down to 2.5 K

Low temperature (down to 2.5 K) scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) measurements are presented to assess the nature of the alpha-Sn/Ge(111) surface. Bias-dependent STM and STS measurements have been used to demonstrate that such a surface preserves a metallic 3 x 3 reconstruct...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review letters 2008-10, Vol.101 (18), p.186102-186102, Article 186102
Main Authors: Colonna, Stefano, Ronci, Fabio, Cricenti, Antonio, Le Lay, Guy
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Low temperature (down to 2.5 K) scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) measurements are presented to assess the nature of the alpha-Sn/Ge(111) surface. Bias-dependent STM and STS measurements have been used to demonstrate that such a surface preserves a metallic 3 x 3 reconstruction at very low temperature. A tip-surface interaction mechanism becomes active below about 20 K at the alpha-Sn/Ge(111) surface, resulting in an apparent unbuckled (sqrt[3] x sqrt[3]) reconstruction when filled states STM images are acquired with tunneling currents higher than 0.2 nA.
ISSN:0031-9007
1079-7114
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.101.186102