Issue 32, 2021

Benchmarking atomically defined AFM tips for chemical-selective imaging

Abstract

Controlling the identity of the tip-terminating atom or molecule in low-temperature atomic force microscopy has led to ground breaking progress in surface chemistry and nanotechnology. Lacking a comparative tip-performance assessment, a profound standardization in such experiments is highly desirable. Here we directly compare the imaging and force-spectroscopy capabilities of four atomically defined tips, namely Cu-, Xe-, CO-, and O-terminated Cu-tips (CuOx-tips). Using a nanostructured copper-oxide surface as benchmark system, we found that Cu-tips react with surface oxygen, while chemically inert Xe- and CO-tips allow entering the repulsive force regime enabling increased resolution. However, their high flexibility leads to imaging artifacts and their strong passivation suppresses the chemical contrast. The higher rigidity and selectively increased chemical reactivity of CuOx-tips prevent tip-bending artifacts and generate a distinct chemical contrast. This result is particularly promising in view of future studies on other metal–oxide surfaces.

Graphical abstract: Benchmarking atomically defined AFM tips for chemical-selective imaging

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
23 Jun 2021
Accepted
29 Jul 2021
First published
29 Jul 2021
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Nanoscale, 2021,13, 13617-13623

Benchmarking atomically defined AFM tips for chemical-selective imaging

B. Schulze Lammers, D. Yesilpinar, A. Timmer, Z. Hu, W. Ji, S. Amirjalayer, H. Fuchs and H. Mönig, Nanoscale, 2021, 13, 13617 DOI: 10.1039/D1NR04080D

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