%0 Journal Article
%A Caciuc, V.
%A Hölscher, H.
%A Blügel, S.
%A Fuchs, H.
%T Atomic-scale sharpening of silicon tips in non-contact atomic force microscopy
%J Physical review letters
%V 96
%@ 0031-9007
%C College Park, Md.
%I APS
%M PreJuSER-52209
%P 016101
%D 2006
%Z Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012
%X The atomic-scale stability of clean silicon tips used in noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) is simulated by ab initio calculations based on density functional theory. The tip structures are modeled by silicon clusters with [111] and [001] termination. For the often assumed Si(111)-type tip we observe the sharpening of the initially blunt tip via short-range chemical forces during the first approach and retraction cycle. The structural changes corresponding to this intrinsic process are irreversible and lead to stable NC-AFM imaging conditions. In opposition to the picture used in literature, the Si(001)-type tip does not exhibit the so-called "two-dangling bond" feature as a bulklike termination suggests.
%K J (WoSType)
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000234608300055
%R 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.016101
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/52209