IN SITU SCANNING TUNNELING MICROSCOPY: NANOSTRUCTURING OF SOLID STATE SURFACES AND DETERMINATION OF SURFACE PROPERTIES

摘要

In situ Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) at the solid / liquid interface has been a very valuable tool to image surface structures and charge transfer processes on an atomically scale. However, the potential of in situ STM at the solid / liquid interface is much larger. It allows to prepare nanostructures with lateral sixes of less than 20 nm by solely electrochemical principles, and can furthermore be successfully utilized to measure physical and chemical properties on an atomic scale by either spcctroscopy in the tunneling regime or spcctroseopy in the contact mode. The extension from the imaging tool to a sophisticated preparation and measurement device can be performed by a substantial improvement of tip resolution and electrochemical equipment, respectively.