Properties of oxide thin films and their adsorption behavior studied by scanning tunneling microscopy and conductance spectroscopy

TLDR: In this article, a survey of state-of-the-art scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments aiming at an investigation of surface properties of oxide materials as well as their interaction with individual adatoms, molecules and metal particles is presented.

About: This article is published in Surface Science Reports.The article was published on 2009-12-01 and is currently open access. It has received 205 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Oxide & Scanning tunneling microscope.

Figures

Fig. 3.27: Top view of two FeO/Pt(111) model structures formed by (A) the superposition of a (3×3) FeO and a (√13×√13) R14° Pt lattice and by (B) a (√7×√7) R19° FeO combined with a (3×3) Pt(111) unit cell. (C) Anti-ferromagnetic spin configurations tested for the FeO thin film: row-wise (left), zigzag (middle) and (√3×√3)R30° spin alignment (right). The latter one can be considered as the collinear analog of the 120°-Néel structure. Large red spheres depict the O atoms, small yellow and blue ones are Fe atoms with opposite spin orientation.166

Fig. 4.18: Experimental and calculated topography, HOMO shape and model structure for Au3 to Au7 chains on alumina /NiAl(110). All images are 5.0 × 5.0 nm2. The HOMO1 for the Au7 is shown in addition. Measured chain lengths are 9 Å, 12 Å, 15 Å and 22 Å; calculated distances between first and last chain atom amount to 5.3Å, 7.8Å, 10.5Å and 15.5Å. To compare theoretical and exp. lengths, 2-3 Å should be added to both sides of the chain to account for the diffusivity of the 1D orbitals.375

Fig. 4.27: STM images of (A) Au and (C) Pd atoms on FeO/Pt(111) (0.25 V, 50 × 50 nm2). Arrows in (C) mark small Pd clusters. (B) Radial pair-distribution function for the Au and Pd adatoms on the FeO surface, calculated from hundreds of atom positions taken from different STM images. In contrast to Au, no ordering effect is observed for the Pd atoms.372

Fig. 1.1: Sketch of an oxide thin film on a metal support, demonstrating important mechanisms and processes to be accounted for when describing the surface properties of the system.

Fig. 4.30: (A) Structure model of the silica thin film on Mo(112), top-view and side-views.422 (B) STM topographic image of the oxide film (1.0 V, 10 × 10 nm2). The two arrows mark a domain boundary that runs from the left to the right.

Fig. 3.8: (A) STM image series showing the gradual oxidation of a Ni(111) single crystal upon dosing 0 to 20 Langmuir of oxygen.154 The formation of NiO is initiated at the metal step edges and slowly proceeds towards the terraces (50 × 50 nm2). (B) CoO islands grown on Au(111) (60×60 nm2). The spatial distribution of the oxide nuclei is given by the elbows of the Au herringbone reconstruction.198

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In this paper, the authors present a detailed analysis of the surface properties of oxides and their properties in terms of surface properties and properties.