Hopping motion of chlorine atoms on Si(1 0 0)-(2 × 1) surfaces induced by carrier injection from scanning tunneling microscope tips

Injection of tunneling electrons and holes from the probe tips of a scanning tunneling microscope was found to enhance the hopping motion of Cl atoms between neighboring dangling-bond sites of Si dimers on Si(1 0 0)-(2 × 1) surfaces, featured by the rate of hopping linearly dependent on the injection current. The hopping rate formed peaks at sample biases of V_S∼+1.25 and −0.85 V, which agree with the peaks in the local density of states spectrum measured by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The Cl hopping was enhanced at Cl-adsorbed sites even remote from the injection point. The Cl hopping by hole injection was more efficiently enhanced by sweeping the tip along the Si dimer row than by tip-sweeping along the perpendicular direction. Such anisotropy, on the other hand, was insignificant in the electron injection case. All of these findings can be interpreted by the model that the holes injected primarily into a surface band originated from the dangling bonds of Si dimers propagate quite anisotropically along the surface, and become localized at Cl sites somehow to destabilize the Si-Cl bonds causing hopping of the Cl atoms. The electrons injected into a bulk band propagate in an isotropic manner and then get resonantly trapped at Si-Cl antibonding orbitals, resulting in bond destabilization and hopping of the Cl atoms.     

Role of molecular orbitals near the fermi level in the excitation of vibrational modes of a single molecule at a scanning tunneling microscope junction

Inelastically tunneled electrons from the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope were used to induce S-S bond dissociation of a (CH(3)S)(2) and lateral hopping of a CH(3)S on Cu(111) at 4.7 K. Both experimental results and theoretical calculations confirm that the excitation mechanism of the vibrationally induced chemistry reflects the projected density of states of molecular orbitals that appear near the Fermi level as a result of the rehybridization of the orbitals between the adsorbed molecules and the substrate metal atoms.     

Long-range electronic interactions at a high temperature: bromine adatom islands on Cu(111)

Long-range electronic interactions between Br adatom islands, which are formed at approximately 600 K, on Cu(111) are mediated by substrate surface-state electrons at that elevated temperature. Using scanning tunneling microscopy at 4 K, we have quantified nearest neighbor island separations and found favored spacings to be half-multiples of the Fermi wavelength of Cu(111). The strong interaction potential and decay length of the interisland interactions are discussed in terms of the interaction of Br with the substrate surface state.     

Scanning tunneling microscopy with atomic resolution on ReS2 single crystals grown by vapor phase transport

Atomic resolution images of layered transition metal-dichalcogenide ReS₂ single-crystals (n-type semiconductor) were obtained using a scanning tunneling microscope with a positive tip. In most cases only unresolved clusters of four rhenium atoms could be seen. Occasional images with higher resolution showed that these bright structures consist of four separated atoms. The symmetry of the imaged atoms is identical to that of the rhenium sublattice but not to that of the sulfur atoms. We conclude therefore that the main contribution to the tunneling current is due to the rhenium atoms, although the sulfur atoms are placed by about 0.15 nm closer to the tip. Thus for our positive bias of the tip the tunneling electrons originate from occupied rhenium states in the valence band of the semiconductor.     

Engineering negative differential conductance with the Cu(111) surface state

Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy are employed to investigate electron tunneling from a C60-terminated tip into a Cu(111) surface. Tunneling between a C60 orbital and the Shockley surface states of copper is shown to produce negative differential conductance (NDC) contrary to conventional expectations. NDC can be tuned through barrier thickness or C60 orientation up to complete extinction. The orientation dependence of NDC is a result of a symmetry matching between the molecular tip and the surface states.     

纳米硅薄膜的低温电输运机制

在很宽的温度范围(500—20K)研究了本征和不同掺磷浓度的纳米硅薄膜的电输运现象.发现 原先的异质结量子点隧穿(HQD)模型能很好地解释薄膜在高温下(500—200K)的电导曲线,但 明显偏离低温下的实验值.低温电导(100—20K)具有单一的激活能W,并与k_BT值 大小相当(W～1—3k_BT),呈现出Hopping电导的特征.对HQD模型做了修正,认为 纳米硅同时存在两种输运机制：热激发辅助的电子隧穿和费米能级附近定域态之间的Hoppin g电导.高温时(T 关键词： 纳米硅薄膜 低温电导 电输运     

Electrical and luminescence properties of a poly(amidoamine) dendrimer containing naphthalimide

The electrical and luminescence properties of a poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM) dendrimer containing naphthalimide are investigated. The influence of adsorbed oxygen on the electrical conductivity of thermally evaporated organic films is analyzed using cyclic thermal desorption. The results obtained are interpreted within a model of two-level hopping electron transfer according to which one of the two systems of energy levels corresponds to intrinsic states of electrons in PAMAM molecules and the other system is associated with the states of electrons in adsorbed oxygen molecules. The use of the cyclic thermal desorption method in combination with the proposed model makes it possible to estimate the localization length of electrons numerically and to determine the states involved in hopping electron transfer. It is demonstrated that the studied compound in the solid state possesses a high luminescence power over a wide spectral range.     

Recombination luminescence mechanisms in Ba3(PO4)2

The effect of hole self-trapping in Ba₃(PO₄)₂ at low temperatures has been studied. The TSL peak at 135 K is due to hole delocalization and diffusion by thermally activated hopping between perfect lattice sites, resulting in a composite uv band, corresponding to the tunneling recombination of holes with localized electrons.     

偏压在隧道效应中的作用

从隧道扫描势垒模型出发。用量子力学导出隧道电流与针尖间的偏压、间距及它们的逸出功之间的关系,并从能带模型的角度导出样品与针尖的间距不变时,隧道电流与偏压成正比关系．指出偏压的作用主要是提高针尖上电子的能量,使针尖上的电子比样品上的电子更容易穿过势垒,从而形成隧道电流．     

Nanoscale imaging of electronic surface transport probed by atom movements induced by scanning tunneling microscope current

The hopping movements of Cl atoms on a Si(111)-(7 x 7) surface that are enhanced by an electron injection from tips of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) exhibit a spatial spread from the electron injection point with an anisotropic distribution. The enhanced hopping effect becomes greatest at a sample bias voltage being resonant with the Si-Cl antibonding states and also exhibits an oscillatory decay with the distance from the injection point characterized by the wavelength depending on the bias voltage. All of these facts can be interpreted in terms of the coherent expansion of the electron wave packets locally formed at the STM tip.     

Spin-polarized surface states on Fe-deposited Au(111) surface: A theoretical study

We have studied electronic structure of Fe-deposited Au(111) by performing ab initio density functional theory calculations. We find that the magnetic moment on the deposited Fe layer is enhanced as compared to that in bulk iron. We observe a large number of new states on the Fe-deposited surface — one of which is in the majority spin channel having similar dispersion to that on the clean surface, and others in the minority spin channel. The effective mass of electrons in surface states near the Fermi level increases on Fe deposition. The electronic properties are found to be insensitive to the stacking of near-surface layers. We need to use very thick slabs in our calculations to avoid splitting of surface states due to spurious interactions between the two surfaces of the slab. Using the local density of states profiles for different surface states, we conclude that in scanning tunneling microscope experiments one can detect two of the surface states — one in the majority channel below the Fermi level, and another in the minority channel appearing just above the Fermi energy. We compare our results to those from scanning tunneling spectroscopy experiments.     

On the possibility of electric transport mediated by long living intrinsic localized solectron modes

We consider a polaron Hamiltonian in which not only the lattice and the electron-lattice interactions, but also the electron hopping term is affected by anharmonicity. We find that the one-electron ground states of this system are localized in a wide range of the parameter space. Furthermore, low energy excited states, generated either by additional momenta in the lattice sites or by appropriate initial electron conditions, lead to states constituted by a localized electron density and an associated lattice distortion, which move together through the system, at subsonic or supersonic velocities. Thus we investigate here the localized states above the ground state which correspond to moving electrons. We show that besides the stationary localized electron states (proper polaron states) there exist moving localized solectron states which can be easily excited. The evolution of these localized states suggests their potential as new carriers for fast electric charge transport.     

Resonant tunneling single electron transistors

We use a modulation-doped double barrier heterostructure to fabricate a resonant tunneling single electron transistor. Irregular Coulomb blockade oscillations are observed when the gate voltage is swept to vary one-by-one the number of electrons in the dot close to 'pinch-off'. The oscillation period is not regular, and generally becomes longer as the electron number is decreased down to zero, reflecting the growing importance of electron-electron interactions and size quantization. Negative differential resistance associated with resonant tunneling through zero-dimensional states is pronounced for a dot holding just a few electrons. The temperature dependence of the Coulomb blockade oscillations and that for the negative differential resistance are not the same. This highlights the different effects of charging and resonant tunneling on the transport characteristics.     

Image charge effect on the light emission of rutile TiO_2(110) induced by a scanning tunneling microscope

The plasmon-enhanced light emission of rutile TiO_2(110) surface has been investigated by a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscope(STM). We found that the photon emission arises from the inelastic electron tunneling between the STM tip and the conduction band or defect states of TiO_2(110). In contrast to the Au(111) surface, the maximum photon energy as a function of the bias voltage clearly deviates from the linear scaling behavior, suggesting the non-negligible effect of the STM tip on the band structure of TiO_2. By performing differential conductance( dI/dV) measurements, it was revealed that such a deviation is not related to the tip-induced band bending, but is attributed to the image charge effect of the metal tip, which significantly shifts the band edges of the TiO_2(110) towards the Femi level(E_F) during the tunneling process. This work not only sheds new lights onto the understanding of plasmon-enhanced light emission of semiconductor surfaces, but also opens up a new avenue for engineering the plasmon-mediated interfacial charge transfer in molecular and semiconducting materials.     

Observation of electronic states on Si(111)-(7 x 7) through short-range attractive force with noncontact atomic force spectroscopy

We experimentally reveal that the short-range attractive force between a Si tip and a Si(111)-(7 x 7) surface is enhanced at specified bias voltages; we conduct force spectroscopy based on noncontact atomic force microscopy with changing bias voltage at a fixed separation. The spectra exhibit prominent peaks and a broad peak, which are attributed to quantum mechanical resonance as the energy levels of sample surface states are tuned to those of the tip states by shifting the Fermi level through changing bias voltage, and to the resonating states over a lowered tunneling barrier, respectively.     

Time domain capacitance spectroscopy of tunneling electrons in the two-dimensional electron gas

We have developed a technique capable of measuring the tunneling current into both localized and conducting states in a 2D electron system (2DES). The method yields I-V characteristics for tunneling with no distortions arising from low 2D in-plane conductivity. We have used the technique to determine the pseudogap energy spectrum for electron tunneling into and out of a 2D system and, further, we have demonstrated that such tunneling measurements reveal spin relaxation times within the 2DEG. Pseudogap: In a 2DEG in perpendicular magnetic field, a pseudogap develops in the tunneling density of states at the Fermi energy. We resolve a linear energy dependence of this pseudogap at low excitations. The slopes of this linear gap are strongly field dependent. No existing theory predicts the observed behavior. Spin relaxation: We explore the characteristics of equilibrium tunneling of electrons from a 3D electrode into a high mobility 2DES. For most 2D Landau level filling factors, we find that electrons tunnel with a single, well-defined tunneling rate. However, for spin-polarized quantum Hall states (ν=1, 3 and 1/3) tunneling occurs at two distinct rates that differ by up to two orders of magnitude. The dependence of the two rates on temperature and tunnel barrier thickness suggests that slow in-plane spin relaxation creates a bottleneck for tunneling of electrons.     

Imaging intrinsic diffusion of bridge-bonded oxygen vacancies on TiO2(110)

We report the first measurements and calculations of the intrinsic mobility of bridge-bonded oxygen (BBO) vacancies on a rutile TiO2(110). The sequences of isothermal (340-420 K) scanning tunneling microscope images show that BBO vacancies migrate along BBO rows. The hopping rate increases exponentially with increasing temperature with an experimental activation energy of 1.15 eV. Density functional theory calculations are in very good agreement giving an energy barrier for hopping of 1.03 eV. Both theory and experiment indicate repulsive interactions between vacancies on a given BBO row.     

金红石型TiO2(110)表面性质及STM形貌模拟

采用密度泛函理论从头计算了金红石型TiO₂(110)表面的相关性质,切片模型含有9层原子,采用化学整比表面结构,晶胞真空层厚度为1.5nm,原子价电子采用超软赝势表达.差分电子密度分布图发现原子附近区域电子密度分布以球对称为主,电子定域形成离子键的趋势较强,但在Ti和O原子之间存在较弱的共价键.模拟了金红石型TiO₂(110)表面结构的扫描隧道显微镜(scanning tunneling microscope,简称STM)图像,利用Tersoff-Hamann的成像理论,在+2V的正向偏压下,采用一系列变化的数值作为STM探针离表面桥式氧的距离,分析了相关态密度的变化,发现(110)表面的STM形貌凸起部分来自于5—Ti原子,而不是2—O原子(桥式氧),在TiO₂(110)表面结构成像中,电子效应起主导作用,证实了STM实验观察到的亮行是Ti原子的结果. 关键词： 功能材料 密态泛函理论 表面结构 STM像     

Adsorbate motions induced by vibrational mode coupling

Adsorbate motions are discussed with a primary attention focused on the coupling between a vibrational mode excited by ultrafast laser heated hot-electrons or by inelastic tunneling electrons with scanning tunneling microscope and the reaction coordinate (RC) mode. Recent experimental results have demonstrated an efficient reaction pathways involving an indirect excitation of a frustrated translational mode, rather than its direct excitation for adsorbate hopping on surfaces. Elementary processes are briefly described for hopping of CO molecules on a laser heated stepped Pt surface, where excitation of the frustrated rotation mode has been found to plays an indispensable. Calculation of the inelastic tunneling current (ITC) for excitation of the C-O stretch mode of a CO molecule is combined with a theory of anharmonic mode coupling to activate the frustrated translation mode above the barrier. The hopping rate as a function of the bias voltage agrees with the experimental result. An unified theory of single-, and two-electron processes for ITC-induced motions induced by an indirect excitation of the RC-mode via mode coupling is also applied to reproduce a crossover from hopping to desorption of a single NH₃ molecule on Cu(1 0 0) with an increase in the tunneling current.     

Energy-exchange processes by tunneling electrons

Resistive heating, emission heating or cooling (e.g., the Nottingham effect), and thermal fluctuation radiation are examples of energy exchange processes which are fundamental in electron field emission and in tunneling junctions of scanning tunneling microscopy. These exchange processes are analyzed for both electronic tunneling processes. We first discuss the energy delivered by a monoatomic tip in the field emission process. Strong phonon excitation is expected for field emission currents exceeding 1 nA. Secondly we present a theoretical calculation of the thermal deposition associated with the Nottingham effect in a tunneling junction. The calculation is based on the free electron model for the electrode materials and the tunneling process across a planar vacuum gap. Our results show that the thermal power is deposited not only at the electron receiving electrode but also at the emitting electrode. This originates from a finite probability for electrons below the Fermi level to tunnel through the tunneling barrier replaced by electrons starting from the Fermi level. The comparison between the calculations and the recent STM measurements is given. Finally we discuss the other energy exchange processes in the tunneling junction, and conclude that the thermal coupling between the tip and the sample of STM is extremely small under UHV conditions. This is important for high temperature STM.