Electric field modulation spectroscopy by scanning tunneling microscopy with a nanometer-scale resolution

Abstract

Instrumentation has been devised by coupling electric field modulation spectroscopy (EFMS) with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) that enables the investigation of electronic band structures in semiconductors with a nanometer-scale spatial resolution. Model experiments using low-temperature-grown GaAs (LT–GaAs) epifilms show that a difference as small as 0.01 eV in electronic energy gaps between the GaAs substrate and the LT–GaAs epilayers can be distinguished in the EFMS spectra, demonstrating the high energy, as well as spatial, resolution of the STM–EFMS.