Study of dynamic processes on semiconductor surfaces using time-resolved scanningtunneling microscopy

Abstract

The time resolution of a conventional scanning tunneling microscope can be improved bymany orders of magnitude by recording open feedback loop current–time traces.The enhanced time resolution comes, however, at the expense of the ability toobtain spatial information. In this paper, we first consider the Ge(111)-c(2 × 8) surface as an example of how surface dynamics can show up in conventional STM images.After a brief introduction to the time-resolved scanning tunneling microscopy technique, itscapabilities will be demonstrated by addressing the dynamics of a dimer pair of a Ptmodified Ge(001).