Abstract
An electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope (EC-STM) tip has been used to fabricate nanometer-sized Cd clusters on Au(1 1 1) electrode surfaces at preselected positions. Cd nanoclusters have been formed at different substrate potentials and were studied using electrochemical and topological characterization in the in situ STM. The results show that the cluster height and stability depend strongly on the applied substrate potential. This can be ascribed to potential dependent surface alloying leading also to a variable composition of the clusters (due to intermixing of Cd from the tip with the substrate during the jump to contact process). Therefore the work presented gives evidence that the stability of the Cd nanoclusters against anodic dissolution also strongly depends on the cluster composition, which is controlled by the substrate surface composition.
Published Version
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