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Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 136802 (2005) [4 pages]

Sensing Dipole Fields at Atomic Steps with Combined Scanning Tunneling and Force Microscopy

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Jeong Young Park1, G. M. Sacha1, M. Enachescu1, D. F. Ogletree1, R. A. Ribeiro2, P. C. Canfield2, C. J. Jenks3, P. A. Thiel3, J. J. Sáenz4, and M. Salmeron1,*
1Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
2Ames Laboratory and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
3Ames Laboratory, and Departments of Chemistry, and of Materials Science and Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
4Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, 28049-Madrid, Spain

Received 17 May 2005; published 21 September 2005

The electric field of dipoles localized at the atomic steps of metal surfaces due to the Smoluchowski effect were measured from the electrostatic force exerted on the biased tip of a scanning tunneling microscope. By varying the tip-sample bias the contribution of the step dipole was separated from changes in the force due to van der Waals and polarization forces. Combined with electrostatic calculations, the method was used to determine the local dipole moment in steps of different heights on Au(111) and on the twofold surface of an Al-Ni-Co decagonal quasicrystal.

© 2005 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.136802
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.95.136802
PACS:
73.30.+y, 68.37.Ef, 68.37.Ps, 71.23.Ft

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Electronic mail: mbsalmeron@lbl.gov

 
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