Phys. Rev. Lett. 60, 1546–1549 (1988)Direct measurement of potential steps at grain boundaries in the presence of current flowReceived 21 January 1988; published in the issue dated 11 April 1988 We have used a new technique to measure simultaneously the surface topography and surface potential of current-carrying polycrystalline Au60Pd40 thin films using a scanning tunneling microscope. The variations of the gradients of the surface potential from a macroscopically constant value which are associated with scattering from grain boundaries in these films are observed. We find that the local potential changes abruptly at the boundaries between the grains. © 1988 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.1546
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.1546
PACS:
73.60.Aq, 61.16.Di, 72.15.Lh
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