Abstract
The authors use STM and AFM observations to show how individual atoms at the tip apex are visible, due localized tunneling between each atom and the carbon monoxide molecule.
Highlights
Single carbon monoxide (CO) molecules have been used widely as tip terminations in high spatial resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [1] and in atomic force microscopy (AFM) [2]
DFT calculations show that the repulsive ring with an attractive center is a complex phenomenon: Pauli repulsion between the CO tip and the Cu adatom prevails at the circumference, while for a CO tip that is exactly above the Cu adatom, hybridization occurs that leads initially to attraction, followed by Pauli repulsion for even smaller distances
We have shown that the atomic structure of the tip can be revealed by STM when probing CO/Pt(111) in contrast to CO/Cu(111), where AFM is needed to clearly resolve the tip apex
Summary
Single carbon monoxide (CO) molecules have been used widely as tip terminations in high spatial resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [1] and in atomic force microscopy (AFM) [2]. When single CO molecules are adsorbed on a metal surface, they can be used to identify the number, configuration, and, with limitations, the chemical species of front atoms at the tip apex [5,6,7,8]. This technique is called carbon monoxide front atom identification (COFI) [5,6,7]. Understanding the apex of the probe tip is essential to interpreting high resolution images and comparing observations to simulation in STM, inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy [9] and FM-AFM [10]
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