Local spectroscopy and atomic imaging of tunneling current, forces, and dissipation on graphite

Theory predicts that the currents in scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and the attractive forces measured in atomic force microscopy (AFM) are directly related. Atomic images obtained in an attractive AFM mode should therefore be redundant because they should be similar to STM. Here, we show that while the distance dependence of current and force is similar for graphite, constant-height AFM and STM images differ substantially depending on the distance and bias voltage. We perform spectroscopy of the tunneling current, the frequency shift, and the damping signal at high-symmetry lattice sites of the graphite (0001) surface. The dissipation signal is about twice as sensitive to distance as the frequency shift, explained by the Prandtl-Tomlinson model of atomic friction.     

Nanoscience and Engineering: The Next Five Years

The current and planned research in nanoscience and engineering will make possible a paradigm shift in nanoscale devices and structures.     

Synthesis, integration, and electrical properties of individual single-walled carbon nanotubes

High-quality single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) are synthesized by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) of methane on silicon-dioxide substrates at controlled locations using patterned catalytic islands. With the synthesized nanotube chips, microfabrication techniques are used to reliably contact individual SWNTs and obtain low contact resistance. The combined chemical synthesis and microfabrication approaches enable systematic characterization of electron transport properties of a large number of individual SWNTs. Results of electrical properties of representative semiconducting and metallic SWNTs are presented. The lowest two-terminal resistance for individual metallic SWNTs (≈5 μm long) is ≈16.5 kΩ measured at 4.2 K. Received: 17 May 1999 / Accepted: 18 May 1999 / Published online: 14 July 1999     

Pricing vulnerable European options with stochastic default barriers

CF Lo and KC Ku Institute of Theoretical Physics and Department of Physics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, Hong Kong, China Email: cho-hoi_hui{at}hkma.gov.hk Received on 31 July 2006. Accepted on 15 March 2007. This paper develops a valuation model of European options incorporatinga stochastic default barrier, which extends a constant defaultbarrier proposed in the Hull–White model. The defaultbarrier is considered as an option writer's liability. Closed-formsolutions of vulnerable European option values based on themodel are derived to study the impact of the stochastic defaultbarriers on option values. The numerical results show that negativecorrelation between the firm values and the stochastic defaultbarriers of option writers gives material reductions in optionvalues where the options are written by firms with leverageratios corresponding to BBB or BB ratings.