Revealing the hidden atom in graphite by low-temperature atomic force microscopy

• Stefan Hembacher

  Institute of Physics, Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, Experimentalphysik VI, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany; and Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

• Franz J. Giessibl

  Institute of Physics, Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, Experimentalphysik VI, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany; and Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

• Jochen Mannhart

  Institute of Physics, Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, Experimentalphysik VI, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany; and Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

• Calvin F. Quate

  Institute of Physics, Electronic Correlations and Magnetism, Experimentalphysik VI, Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstrasse 1, D-86135 Augsburg, Germany; and Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305

抄録

Carbon, the backbone material of life on Earth, comes in three modifications: diamond, graphite, and fullerenes. Diamond develops tetrahedral sp 3 bonds, forming a cubic crystal structure, whereas graphite and fullerenes are characterized by planar sp 2 bonds. Polycrystalline graphite is the basis for many products of everyday life: pencils, lubricants, batteries, arc lamps, and brushes for electric motors. In crystalline form, highly oriented pyrolytic graphite is used as a diffracting element in monochromators for x-ray and neutron scattering and as a calibration standard for scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The graphite surface is easily prepared as a clean atomically flat surface by cleavage. This feature is attractive and is used in many laboratories as the surface of choice for “seeing atoms.” Despite the proverbial ease of imaging graphite by STM with atomic resolution, every second atom in the hexagonal surface unit cell remains hidden, and STM images show only a single atom in the unit cell. Here we present measurements with a low-temperature atomic force microscope with pico-Newton force sensitivity that reveal the hidden surface atom.

収録刊行物

• Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100 (22), 12539-12542, 2003-09-22

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

キーワード

• Multidisciplinary

詳細情報

• CRID: 1363388845967338496
• NII論文ID: 30016238315
• NII書誌ID: AA10808769
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2134173100
• ISSN: 10916490
• ISSN: 00278424
• Web Site: https://pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.2134173100
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