Bistability in scanning tunneling spectroscopy of Ga-terminated Si(111)

Bistable electron transport, a phenomenon usually associated with double-barrier structures, has been observed with a conventional STM junction formed between a metal tip and a Ga-terminated Si(111) surface at 77 K. Large hysteresis loops appear in the current-voltage characteristics when electrons are injected from the tip to the surface. The turn-on bias varies from -3.1 to -4.0 V and shows an inverse dependence on the tip-sample distance, indicating a strong field effect. The turn-off bias, however, is essentially pinned at a conductance threshold of -2.7 V.     

Atomic scale characterization of oxygen adsorbates on Al(111) by scanning tunneling microscopy

We present atomic scale STM pictures of clean and oxygen containing Al(111) surfaces. Little influence of the surface oxygen on the topography of the surfaces is found. Three different oxygen species can be distinguished. One of them is associated with adsorbed oxygen and found to grow in small islands upon adsorption at 300 K. Characteristic hexagonal nuclei, created upon annealing of a dilute oxygen adlayer, represent the second one. By comparison with existing spectroscopic data these are assigned to nuclei of a surface oxide.     

Spin-polarized tunneling spectroscopy of co(0001) surface States

Spin-polarized tunneling was studied on Co surfaces of exchange coupled Co/Cu/Co samples, using an Fe tip. A spin-polarized surface state of Co(0001) was found to exist at -0.43 eV relative to E(F), with FWHM of 0.23 eV in the spectra. The state exhibits negative magnetoresistance with an effective spin polarization of less than -23%, suggesting negatively high spin polarization of the surface state. Our first-principles calculations have supported the existence of the surface state. From the calculation, the state is identified as a minority spin Gamma-centered d(2)(z)-like surface state.     

Spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy of nanoscale cobalt islands on Cu(111)

Spin-averaged and spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy at low temperature was performed on nanometer-scale triangular Co islands grown epitaxially on Cu(111) in the submonolayer coverage regime. Two structurally different island types can clearly be distinguished by their spin-averaged electronic structure. Spin-polarized measurements allow a separation of spectral contributions arising from different island stacking or from opposite magnetization states, respectively. In an applied magnetic field, both island types are found to be magnetized perpendicular to the surface, with large values of saturation field, remanence, and coercivity.     

Chemical-specific imaging of multicomponent metal surfaces on the nanometer scale by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

The topographic and chemical surface structure of a submonolayer iron film on a W(110) substrate has been studied by combined scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy. Local tunneling spectra revealed a pronounced difference in the electronic structure between nanometer-scale iron islands of monolayer height and the bare W(110) substrate. In particular, a pronounced empty-state peak at 0.2 eV above the Fermi level has been identified for the iron islands. Based on the pronounced difference in the local tunneling spectra measured above the iron islands and the tungsten substrate, chemical-specific imaging was achieved by performing spatially resolved measurements of the differential tunneling conductivitydl/dU (x, y) at selected sample bias voltages.     

Investigation of the (111) surface of P-doped Si by scanning tunneling microscopy

Received: 27 March 1998     

Influence of impurities on localized transition metal surface states: scanning tunneling spectroscopy on V(001)

The first scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on V(001) are reported. A strong surface state is detected which is very sensitive to the presence of segregated carbon impurities. The surface state energy shifts from 0.03 eV below the Fermi level at clean areas towards higher energies (up to approximately 0.2 eV) at contaminated areas. Because of the negative dispersion of this state, the upward shift cannot be described in a simple confinement picture. Rather, the surface state energy is governed by vanadium surface s- d interactions which are altered by carbon coverage.     

Reversal of atomic contrast in scanning probe microscopy on (111) metal surfaces

We study the origin of atomic contrast on Cu(111) and Pt(111) surfaces probed by a non-contact atomic force microscope and scanning tunnelling microscope. First-principles simulations of the interaction between the atoms of the scanning tip and those of the probed surface show a dependence of the resulting contrast on the tip-sample distance and reveal a close relation between contrast changes and relaxation of atomic positions in both the tip and the sample. Contrast reversion around the distance where the short-range attractive atomic force reaches its maximum is predicted for both types of microscopies. We also demonstrate a relation between the maximal attractive force in a F-z atomic force spectroscopy and the chemical identity of the apex atom on the imaging tip.     

Photoemission yield spectroscopy of electronic surface states on germanium (111) surfaces

The electronic surface states of cleaved and annealed Ge(111) surfaces have been investigated by photoemission yield spectroscopy and contact potential measurements on a set of differently doped samples. On the 2 × 1 cleaved surface, a surface state band centered about 0.7 eV below the valence band maximum is found. The variations of the work function with the doping level show that an empty surface state band exists above the Fermi level. After annealing at temperatures of the order of 350°C, this surface exhibits a 2 × 8 superstructure. A new surface state band is then found closer to the valence band maximum. This variation of the surface state distribution is correlated to a change in the surface potential. The variation of the electronic characteristics upon oxygen adsorption are also reported and an evaluation of the sticking coefficient is made for both structures.     

Electronic properties of assembled islands of hydrogen-saturated silicon clusters on Si(111)-(7 x 7) surfaces studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy

We present results of scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements of hydrogen-saturated silicon clusters islands formed on Si(111)-( 7×7) surfaces. Nanometer-size islands of Si₆H₁₂ with a height of 0.2-4 nm were assembled with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) using a tip-to-sample voltage larger than 3 V. STS spectra of Si₆H₁₂ cluster islands show characteristic peaks originating in resonance tunneling through discrete states of the clusters. The peak positions change little with island height, while the peak width shows a tendency of narrowing for the tall islands. The peak narrowing is interpreted as increase of lifetime of electron trapped at the cluster states. The lifetime was as short as 10^-13 s resulting from interaction with the dangling bonds of surface atoms, which prevents charge accumulation at the cluster islands. Received 30 November 2000     

A prospective: Quantitative scanning tunneling spectroscopy of semiconductor surfaces

Analysis methods that enable quantitative energies of states to be obtained from vacuum tunneling spectra of semiconductors are discussed. The analysis deals with the problem of tip-induced band bending in the semiconductor, which distorts the voltage-scale of the spectra so that it does not correspond directly to energy values. Three-dimensional electrostatic modeling is used to solve the electrostatics of the tip-vacuum-semiconductor system, and an approximate (semiclassical in the radial direction) solution for the wavefunctions is used to obtain the tunnel current. Various applications of the method to semiconductor surfaces and other material systems are discussed, and possible extensions of the method are considered.