Mechano-chemical manipulation of Sn chains on Si(1 0 0) by NC-AFM

Sweetman, Adam; Lekkas, Ioannis; Moriarty, Philip

Abstract

We investigate the atomic structure of Sn dimer chains grown on the Si(1 0 0) surface using non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) at cryogenic temperatures. We find that similar to the native Si(1 0 0) dimer structure, the ground state of the Sn dimer structure is buckled at low temperature. At 5 K we show that the buckling state of the Sn dimers may be controllably, and reversibly, manipulated with atomic precision by close approach of the tip, without modification of the underlying substrate buckling structure. At intermediate cryogenic temperatures we observe changes in the configuration of the dimer chains in the region where the tip-sample interaction is very weak, suggesting that the energy barrier to transit between configurations is sufficiently small to be surmounted at 78 K.

Citation

Sweetman, A., Lekkas, I., & Moriarty, P. (2016). Mechano-chemical manipulation of Sn chains on Si(1 0 0) by NC-AFM. Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, 29(7), Article 074003. https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/29/7/074003

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 4, 2016
• Publication Date: Dec 30, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jan 11, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 11, 2017
• Journal: Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter
• Print ISSN: 0953-8984
• Electronic ISSN: 1361-648X
• Publisher: IOP Publishing
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 29
• Issue: 7
• Article Number: 074003
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/29/7/074003
• Keywords: STM, NC-AFM, atomic manipulation, Si(1 0 0), semiconductor, tin
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/831817
• Publisher URL: http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1361-648X/29/7/074003/meta
• Additional Information: This is an author-created, un-copyedited version of an article accepted for publication in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter. The publisher is not responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript or any version derived from it. The Version of Record is available online at http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-648X/29/7/074003.