TY  - JOUR
AU  - Caciuc, V.
AU  - Hölscher, H.
AU  - Blügel, S.
AU  - Fuchs, H.
TI  - Atomic-scale sharpening of silicon tips in non-contact atomic force microscopy
JO  - Physical review letters
VL  - 96
SN  - 0031-9007
CY  - College Park, Md.
PB  - APS
M1  - PreJuSER-52209
SP  - 016101
PY  - 2006
N1  - Record converted from VDB: 12.11.2012
AB  - 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.
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000234608300055
DO  - DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.016101
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/52209
ER  -