Determining amplitude and tilt of a lateral force microscopy sensor

• Oliver Gretz,
• Alfred J. Weymouth,
• Thomas Holzmann,
• Korbinian Pürckhauer and
• Franz J. Giessibl

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 517–524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.42

• the acquired data. To determine the amplitude and tilt we make use of the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) channel and acquire data without and with oscillation of the tip above a local surface feature. We use a full two-dimensional current map of the STM data without oscillation to simulate data

• is called lateral force microscopy (LFM) (Figure 1). One advantage to LFM is that it is highly sensitive to short-range interactions. A drawback is that it is not a suitable technique for approaching a sample or determining the sample tilt. Here a complementary technique such as STM (used in our

• , however, does not take the real geometry of the sensor and electrodes into account. At low temperatures, the most common method is to use STM to calibrate the amplitude, provided that STM is available and that the sample is conducting. This method is often used for normal AFM, where the cantilever

Extended iron phthalocyanine islands self-assembled on a Ge(001):H surface

• Rafal Zuzak,
• Marek Szymonski and
• Szymon Godlewski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 232–241, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.19

• nanoislands. Our STM data indicate that FePc molecules stay intact upon adsorption. While single molecules are trapped at surface defects and could be manipulated with the STM tip away from the defects onto the perfectly hydrogenated Ge(001):H surface, the major fraction of the molecules could be found within

• single-layer islands extending surprisingly far over distances reaching hundreds of nanometers. Within these islands FePc molecules adopt an upright orientation, which is characteristic for substrates weekly interacting with metal phthalocyanines. Our combined scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and

• bond dimer (DBD) is formed. A typical STM appearance of the Ge(001):H surface with the above atomic-scale defects is shown in Figure 1. Molecular islands of FePc on Ge(001):H After deposition of FePc molecules onto a Ge(001):H surface at room temperature, we observe single molecules distributed over

TiO_x/Pt₃Ti(111) surface-directed formation of electronically responsive supramolecular assemblies of tungsten oxide clusters

• Marco Moors,
• Yun An,
• Agnieszka Kuc and
• Kirill Yu. Monakhov

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2021, 12, 203–212, doi:10.3762/bjnano.12.16

• surfaces by using high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), in particular on TiO2(110) [15][16], CuO(110) [17], and Pt(111) [18]. Recently, the surface behavior of W3O9 was assessed on a complex CuWO3 phase grown on Cu(110). The CuWO3/Cu(110) substrate can be viewed as a two-dimensional (2D

• , theory-supported STM measurements at liquid nitrogen temperatures have been selected as an ideal characterization technique. This is due to the fact that it not only allows high-resolution imaging on the nanoscale, but the STM tip may also act as a charge-injecting or depleting electrode for the

• controlled manipulation of single W3O9 clusters. The power of the STM approach for molecular switches has been demonstrated several times. For example, Cui et al. recently showed the reversible switching of a large discoid polyaromatic salt as a function of the applied bias voltage [27]. By that, we were

Direct observation of the Si(110)-(16×2) surface reconstruction by atomic force microscopy

• Tatsuya Yamamoto,
• Ryo Izumi,
• Kazushi Miki,
• Takahiro Yamasaki,
• Yasuhiro Sugawara and
• Yan Jun Li

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1750–1756, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.157

• . The pentagonal structure, which is the most important building block of the reconstruction, was concluded to consist of five atoms, while only four or five spots (depending on tip bias) have been reported with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Single atoms were determined to exist near step edges

• between upper and lower terraces, which have not been reported using STM. These findings are key evidence for establishing an atomic model of the Si(110)-(16×2) reconstruction, which indeed has a complex structure. Keywords: atomic force microscopy (AFM); noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM); Si

• ], scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) [25], and photoelectron spectroscopy (PES) [22][26][27]. The 16×2 reconstruction has a striped structure with upper and lower terraces and with boundaries of monatomic steps. In

The influence of an interfacial hBN layer on the fluorescence of an organic molecule

• Christine Brülke,
• Oliver Bauer and
• Moritz M. Sokolowski

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1663–1684, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.149

• substrates, thin interfacial films of considerable thickness (5–10 monolayers) of alkali halides have been used in our lab [10]. In contrast, experiments on the light emission from molecules induced by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM-LE) required thin alkali halide films of two monolayers thickness in

• order to support tunneling [11][12][13]. A single layer or films of hBN are attractive for decoupling a molecule from an underlying metal substrate as hBN exhibits a wide bandgap of 5.9 eV [14]. Perspectively, it could also provide a substrate for STM-LE experiments. Furthermore, it is of interest due

PTCDA adsorption on CaF₂ thin films

• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1615–1622, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.144

• , with PTCDA as the probe molecule. In particular, the adsorption properties of PTCDA on CaF2/CaF1/Si(111), CaF1/Si(111), as well as Si(111)-(7 × 7) surfaces are experimentally investigated by high-resolution scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and the adsorption geometry on a CaF2(111) slab is

• flat-lying geometry is found from geometry-optimisation calculations of a single PTCDA molecule on a CaF2 slab using DFT, whereby an interaction between two carbonyl oxygen atoms and two surface calcium ions leads to a slight deformation of the PTCDA molecule. Methods Sample preparation and STM

• experiments were performed under ultrahigh-vacuum conditions. Highly B-doped p-type Si(111) samples (Institute of Electronic Materials Technology, Warsaw, Poland) were used as substrates. The (7 × 7) reconstruction was formed by flash cycles and the (7 × 7) surface quality was checked by STM imaging. CaF2

Adsorption and self-assembly of porphyrins on ultrathin CoO films on Ir(100)

• Feifei Xiang,
• Tobias Schmitt,
• Marco Raschmann and
• M. Alexander Schneider

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1516–1524, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.134

• films on Ir(100) by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT). The two substrates differ greatly with respect to their structural and potential-energy landscape corrugation with immediate consequences for adsorption and self-assembly of the molecules studied. On both films

• vacuum (UHV) at a base pressure of 8 × 10−11 mbar. STM images were taken using a custom-built low-temperature UHV STM operated at liquid-nitrogen temperature (80 K). We used etched tungsten tips and the bias voltage is the potential of the sample with respect to the tip. Co-DPP (1, PorphyChem SAS, 98

• -hexagonal layer with lattice parameter a2BL CoO = 3.0–3.1 Å [18]. STM images of both films show the positions of the oxygen atoms as bright protrusions [20]. Computational Methods Non-magnetic ab initio calculations were performed using the Vienna Ab-initio Simulation Package (VASP) [32] employing the PBE

Controlling the electronic and physical coupling on dielectric thin films

• Philipp Hurdax,
• Michael Hollerer,
• Larissa Egger,
• Georg Koller,
• Xiaosheng Yang,
• Anja Haags,
• Serguei Soubatch,
• Frank Stefan Tautz,
• Mathias Richter,
• Alexander Gottwald,
• Peter Puschnig,
• Martin Sterrer and
• Michael G. Ramsey

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1492–1503, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.132

• : decoupling; integer charge transfer; organic films; para-sexiphenyl; thin dielectric film; Introduction Since the first scanning tunneling microscope (STM) imaging of the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of pentacene (5A) on NaCl/Cu(111) was

• Pacchioni et al. [4][5][6] and either inferred or observed for adsorbates ranging from metal atoms [7][8] and small molecules [9][10] to larger π-conjugated molecules [11][12][13]. This phenomenon has been comprehensively analyzed for 5A on epitaxial MgO(100)/Ag(100), in which orbital-resolved STM and

• photoemission tomography (PT) have enabled the quantification of both the charge on individual molecules and the number of charged molecules in the 5A monolayer (ML) [14]. For 5A MLs on regularly grown epitaxial MgO(100) films, all molecules appear to be charged. Orbital-resolved STM reveals the LUMO both above

Self-assembly and spectroscopic fingerprints of photoactive pyrenyl tectons on hBN/Cu(111)

• Domenik M. Zimmermann,
• Knud Seufert,
• Luka Ðorđević,
• Tobias Hoh,
• Sushobhan Joshi,
• Tomas Marangoni,
• Davide Bonifazi and
• Willi Auwärter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1470–1483, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.130

• . Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS) measurements of the pyrene derivatives adsorbed on a Cu(111)-supported hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) decoupling layer provided access to spatially and energetically resolved molecular electronic states. We demonstrate that the pyrene electronic gap

• properties in organic layers relied on bulk insulator supports [14][15][16]. As a promising alternative to bulk insulators, ultrathin dielectric films can act as decoupling layers but maintain the possibility to perform STM and STS measurements [17]. Atomically-thin hBN sheets attracted considerable interest

• as such spacer layers [18] and can promote site-dependent decoupling and adsorption [19][20], yielding access to optical transitions [21] as well as allowing for orbital-resolved STM imaging [19][21][22][23]. For instance, hBN/Cu(111) [24][25][26][27] features a work function template with a moiré

Protruding hydrogen atoms as markers for the molecular orientation of a metallocene

• Linda Laflör,
• Michael Reichling and
• Philipp Rahe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1432–1438, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.127

• samples, the surface direction was determined by cleaving the crystal after the NC-AFM experiments along a (111) plane other than the surface plane. For thin film samples, the orientation of the Si(111)-(7 × 7) unit cell was measured by scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and the direction was

• determined by considering the B-type epitaxy of the CaF2/CaF1/Si(111) thin films samples, see [22][26] for further details. STM and NC-AFM experiments were conducted at low temperatures (5 and 77 K) in two separate systems. Experiments on bulk crystals were performed using an Omicron LT qPlus gen.III

• frequency-shift images were acquired at different tip–sample distances, see Figure 2b–e. Data were acquired above a region where several FDCA molecules were arranged along the direction (see STM data in Figure 2a), with a molecular separation determined by the CaF2(111) lattice periodicity of 669 pm. Upon

Atomic defect classification of the H–Si(100) surface through multi-mode scanning probe microscopy

• Jeremiah Croshaw,
• Thomas Dienel,
• Taleana Huff and
• Robert Wolkow

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1346–1360, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.119

• Nanotechnology Research Centre, National Research Council Canada, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2M9, Canada 10.3762/bjnano.11.119 Abstract The combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) and non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) allows enhanced extraction and correlation of properties not readily

• of the H-terminated Si(100)-2 × 1 surface, its structural features, and defects. Six different scanning probe imaging modes are performed using both STM and nc-AFM. By combining the accessible information with probe particle simulations [23][24] (presented in Supporting Information File 1) of the

• functionalization of the probe tip. Figure 1 showcases the imaging modes employed in this work as applied to the defect-free H–Si(100)-2 × 1 surface (see Methods for details about the sample preparation). In the well-known STM topographies probing empty and filled states in Figure 1c and 1d, respectively, the dimer

Growth of a self-assembled monolayer decoupled from the substrate: nucleation on-command using buffer layers

• Robby Reynaerts,
• Kunal S. Mali and
• Steven De Feyter

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1291–1302, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.113

• typical building block, namely 4-tetradecyloxybenzoic acid at the 1-phenyloctane–graphite interface in the presence and in the absence of a buffer layer formed by a long chain alkane, namely n-pentacontane. Using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), three different structural polymorphs were identified

• layer. We discovered that the self-assembly on top of the buffer layer allows better control over the nanoscale manipulation of the self-assembled networks. Using the influence of the STM tip, we could initiate the nucleation of small isolated domains of the benzoic acid on-command in a reproducible

• probe methods, especially scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [2]. While the formation of structurally diverse crystalline monolayers provides exciting opportunities for surface modification and also for investigating crystal engineering in 2D [5], predicting 2D polymorphism is often nontrivial. The

An atomic force microscope integrated with a helium ion microscope for correlative nanoscale characterization

• Santiago H. Andany,
• Gregor Hlawacek,
• Stefan Hummel,
• Charlène Brillard,
• Mustafa Kangül and
• Georg E. Fantner

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1272–1279, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.111

• vacuum. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) was first combined with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [2][3], allowing for the visual observation at the tip–sample interaction point with the SEM. Later, Ermakov et al. [4] successfully integrated an AFM into an SEM for the first time, enabling

Role of redox-active axial ligands of metal porphyrins adsorbed at solid–liquid interfaces in a liquid-STM setup

• Thomas Habets,
• Sylvia Speller and
• Johannes A. A. W. Elemans

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1264–1271, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.110

• , Albert-Einstein-Straße 25, 18059 Rostock, Germany 10.3762/bjnano.11.110 Abstract In a liquid-STM setup environment, the redox behavior of manganese porphyrins was studied at various solid–liquid interfaces. In the presence of a solution of Mn(III)Cl porphyrins in 1-phenyloctane, which was placed at a

• single-molecule level, employing scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [7][8][9]. Since our aim was to stay as close as possible to the laboratory conditions at which catalysis takes place (typically in an organic solvent under ambient conditions), we carried out our STM studies at a solid–liquid interface

• ) substrate and an n-tetradecane solution of the compound [7]. From real-time topographic signature changes in the STM images (Figure 1c), combined with optical reflectance spectroscopy, it was concluded that Mn=O complexes were readily formed in the presence of O2 gas. This was a surprising result, since a

Hybridization vs decoupling: influence of an h-BN interlayer on the physical properties of a lander-type molecule on Ni(111)

• Maximilian Schaal,
• Takumi Aihara,
• Marco Gruenewald,
• Felix Otto,
• Jari Domke,
• Roman Forker,
• Hiroyuki Yoshida and
• Torsten Fritz

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1168–1177, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.101

• comprehensive study we utilized differential reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (LT-STM), as well as photoelectron spectroscopy (PES). Our results reveal that DBP on h-BN/Ni(111) is well decoupled from the metal substrate Ni(111

• rubrene on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) [29]. Our interpretation of the optical spectra is further supported by LT-STM measurements (see Supporting Information File 1, Figure S2) which show a completely filled monolayer as well as molecular clusters on top of the first layer. Lateral

• by the LT-STM measurement shown in Figure 3b. We superimposed the STM image by the contours of the two molecules in the unit cell as well as the adsorbate lattice as determined by LEED. A DBP molecule is characterized by four bright protrusions, which correspond to the phenyl substituents oriented

Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy of rubrene on clean and graphene-covered metal surfaces

• Karl Rothe,
• Alexander Mehler,
• Nicolas Néel and
• Jörg Kröger

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1157–1167, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.100

• expected to be well decoupled from the metal substrate. After adsorption of C42H28 on Pt(111) scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) images reveal the occurrence of separate molecular clusters and very broad molecular resonances in STS data, which is attributed to an elevated C42H28–Pt interaction. On Au(111

• surface. Experimental The experiments were performed with an STM operated in ultrahigh vacuum (10−9 Pa) and at low temperature (Pt(111) and graphene-covered Pt(111) at 5 K, Au(111) at 78 K). Pt(111) and Au(111) surfaces were cleaned by Ar+ ion bombardment and annealing. Graphene was epitaxially grown on

• temperature. Molecular coverages below the closed single molecular layer are estimated from STM images as the percentage of the covered surface area. All STM images were recorded at constant current with the bias voltage applied to the sample. Constant-height dI/dV data were acquired with a lock-in amplifier

Monolayers of MoS₂ on Ag(111) as decoupling layers for organic molecules: resolution of electronic and vibronic states of TCNQ

• Asieh Yousofnejad,
• Gaël Reecht,
• Nils Krane,
• Christian Lotze and
• Katharina J. Franke

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 1062–1071, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.91

• Mo deposition on the surface in a H2S atmosphere of 5·10−5 mbar, while the sample is annealed to 800 K. TCNQ molecules were deposited on the as-prepared sample held at 230 K. The sample was then cooled down and transferred to the scanning tunneling microscope (STM). All measurements were performed at

• 4.6 K. Differential conductance (dI/dV) maps and spectra were recorded with a lock-in amplifier at modulation frequencies of 812–921 Hz, with the amplitudes given in the figure captions. Characterization of single-layer MoS2 on Ag(111) Figure 1a presents an STM image of the Ag(111) surface after the

• indicates shallow energetic minima of the lattice orientations. Atomically resolved STM images (Figure 1c) reveal the expected S–S distance of 3.15 Å in the top layer [36][39][40][41]. For an efficient decoupling of a molecule from the substrate, the interlayer must provide an electronic bandgap. As the

Adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine onto the (110) face of rutile TiO₂

• Lukasz Bodek,
• Mads Engelund,
• Aleksandra Cebrat and
• Bartosz Such

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 821–828, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.67

• , Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland 10.3762/bjnano.11.67 Abstract The adsorption behavior of tin phthalocyanine (SnPc) molecules on rutile TiO2(110) was studied by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Low-temperature STM

• tunneling microscopy (STM); tin phthalocyanine (SnPc); titanium dioxide (TiO2); Introduction Phthalocyanines (Pcs) are aromatic molecules that can form metal complexes with a variety of elements, which can be used to tune molecular properties, such as position or shape of adsorption bands. Therefore, Pcs

• orientation. To fill this gap in knowledge, here, we report room-temperature (RT) and low-temperature (LT) STM-based studies of the adsorption of nonplanar tin phthalocyanine (SnPc) molecules a rutile (110)-1 × 1 surface of TiO2. SnPc molecules appear on such a surface in two flat-lying geometries defined by

Hexagonal boron nitride: a review of the emerging material platform for single-photon sources and the spin–photon interface

• Stefania Castelletto,
• Faraz A. Inam,
• Shin-ichiro Sato and
• Alberto Boretti

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 740–769, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.61

• of h-BN with triangle shapes. The most commonly formed defects found are boron monovacancies [65] as the dominating zigzag-type edges of the defects are nitrogen terminated. Individual defects with nanoscale resolution were isolated and manipulated by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [95

Electromigration-induced directional steps towards the formation of single atomic Ag contacts

• Atasi Chatterjee,
• Christoph Tegenkamp and
• Herbert Pfnür

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 680–687, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.55

• break junctions (MCBJ), scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and electromigration (EM). All these techniques rely on conductance histograms as a statistical tool in order to find the configurations of high stability. Conductance histograms provide information about the most probable conductance values

• fabrication were reported in a previous publication [26][28]. All measurements were performed within a four-tip SEM/STM UHV chamber (base pressure 2 × 10−10 mbar). This facilitated cooling of the structures down to 100 K without any spurious condensation. Furthermore, the UHV environment was important for the

Current measurements in the intermittent-contact mode of atomic force microscopy using the Fourier method: a feasibility analysis

• Berkin Uluutku and
• Santiago D. Solares

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 453–465, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.37

• cantilever oscillation, can be a less destructive technique [16][19][20], and this could be advantageous also for performing current measurements on such samples. Additionally, scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) applications may also benefit from current measurements during which the tip oscillates above

• the surface, although in the noncontact regime. Specifically, STM measurements are modulated based on the observed tunnelling current, which has an exponential dependence on the tip–sample distance [21]. Therefore, any unexpected contact with the surface may lead to a current spike and severely

• tip–sample impacts may be more benign and may not perturb the measurement as drastically as in traditional STM approaches. Intermittent-contact current measurement within AFM has already been discussed in the literature. A notable example is the work by Fein et al. where injected voltage pulses were

Atomic-resolution imaging of rutile TiO₂(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface by non-contact atomic force microscopy

• Daiki Katsube,
• Shoki Ojima,
• Eiichi Inami and
• Masayuki Abe

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 443–449, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.35

• characterize the surface. Ti2O3 rows appeared as bright spots in both NC-AFM and STM images observed in the same area. High-resolution NC-AFM images revealed that the rutile TiO2(110)-(1 × 2) reconstructed surface is composed of two domains with different types of asymmetric rows. Keywords: non-contact atomic

• microscopy (STM) [10][11][12], transmission electron microscopy [13][14], and density functional theory (DFT) [15][16][17][18][19]. These studies have determined many surface properties such as structure, local defects, and adsorption sites. The (1 × 1) surface transforms to the (1 × 2) surface by oxygen

• reduction in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) [2][20]. Several structural models for the (1 × 2) surface have been proposed [10][21][22][23][24]. Onishi and Iwasawa proposed a symmetric Ti2O3 model (Figure 1a) based on STM measurements [10], while Wang et al. proposed an asymmetric Ti2O3 model (Figure 1b) similar to

Nonequilibrium Kondo effect in a graphene-coupled quantum dot in the presence of a magnetic field

• Levente Máthé and
• Ioan Grosu

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 225–239, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.17

• that the Kondo resonance appears only in a narrow energy range for the impurity level with respect to the chemical potential (μ), and the energy scale is proportional to |μ|. The Kondo effect of an adatom on the surface of graphene and its scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) have been analyzed by

• regimes, the shape of the Kondo resonance is influenced by the Fano resonance. However, the tunneling between the STM tip and graphene does not obviously affect the shape of the Kondo resonance in the vicinity of zero bias. Yanagisawa investigated the Kondo effect induced by the s–d interaction with Dirac

Nanosecond resistive switching in Ag/AgI/PtIr nanojunctions

• Botond Sánta,
• Dániel Molnár,
• Patrick Haiber,
• Agnes Gubicza,
• Edit Szilágyi,
• Zsolt Zolnai,
• András Halbritter and
• Miklós Csontos

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2020, 11, 92–100, doi:10.3762/bjnano.11.9

• microscope (STM) to the AgI-coated thin film structure schematically illustrated in the lower inset of Figure 1a. The photosensitive AgI layers were formed promptly before electrical characterization by exposing a 100 nm thick Ag layer to iodine vapor at 40°C and ambient pressure for 30 s in the dark

• single exception of its photosensitivity. The latter offers a further possibility for a combined electrical and optical manipulation of the resistance states. Instrumental developments for high-speed resistive switching measurements In order to investigate resistive switching in STM based nanojunctions

• formed in a vacuum chamber that can be evacuated down to 10−7 mbar. The thin film sample and the STM tip are mechanically attached directly to the hot lines of two impedance-matched co-planar waveguide printed circuit boards (PCBs). Their common ground is provided by a spring-loaded contact, which

Antimony deposition onto Au(111) and insertion of Mg

• Lingxing Zan,
• Da Xing,
• Abdelaziz Ali Abd-El-Latif and
• Helmut Baltruschat

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2019, 10, 2541–2552, doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.245

• (CV) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Monolayer deposition results in a characteristic row structure; the monolayer is commensurate in one dimension, but not in the other. The row structure is to some extent maintained after deposition of further layers. After dissolution of the Sb multilayers

• the substrate is roughened on the atomic scale due to alloy formation, as demonstrated by CV and STM. Further multilayer deposition correspondingly leads to a rough deposit with protrusions of up to 3 nm. The cyclic voltammogram for Mg insertion/de-insertion from MgCl2/AlCl3/tetraglyme (MACC/TG

• : alloy; antimony; Au(111); electrodeposition; insertion; STM; Introduction Rechargeable batteries have become essential energy storing devices, which are widely used in portable electronic devices and hybrid electric vehicles. Magnesium-based secondary batteries have been regarded as a viable