Fabrication of Mo pyramidal-shape single atom tips covered by a noble metal

Abstract

• Provide another option for a material to produce single atom tips. • Selecting an oxide that is easier to remove from the surface of the metal is important in the manufacture of single-atom tips. • The single atom tips will have a self-assembled formation after annealing the Mo tips covered by noble metal. • There are two types of pyramidal structures formed on Mo (1 1 1) facets. The effect of annealing temperature on the faceting phenomena has been studied for pure molybdenum (Mo) and Mo tips covered with palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), rhodium (Rh), or iridium (Ir) by field ion microscopy (FIM). For these Mo samples, three {2 1 1} facets were found to expand to {1 1 1} facets and form pyramidal structures after annealing at the temperature of 1100–1300 K. The pyramidal single atom tips (SATs) were formed on Pd-, Pt- and Rh-covered Mo tips. Two types of pyramidal structure, stacked by either 1, 3, 10 or 1, 6, 15 atoms for the top three layers were found. However, no SATs were found on pure Mo and Ir-covered tips. This indicates that noble metal adsorption, which can increase the difference of surface-free-energy anisotropy, indeed benefits the formation of SATs on Mo systems. Additionally, an SAT cannot be obtained for the Ir-covered Mo systems, because Ir is easily alloyed with Mo.