Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts

L. Limot; J. Kröger; R. Berndt; A. Garcia-Lekue; W. A. Hofer

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.126102

Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts

Strongly Correlated Electrons 2016-08-16 v1 Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics

Authors: L. Limot , J. Kröger , R. Berndt , A. Garcia-Lekue , W. A. Hofer

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Abstract

The point contact of a tunnel tip approaching towards Ag(111) and Cu(111) surfaces is investigated with a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope. A sharp jump-to-contact, random in nature, is observed in the conductance. After point contact, the tip-apex atom is transferred to the surface, indicating that a one-atom contact is formed during the approach. In sharp contrast, the conductance over single silver and copper adatoms exhibits a smooth and reproducible transition from tunneling to contact regime. Numerical simulations show that this is a consequence of the additional dipolar bonding between the homoepitaxial adatom and the surface atoms.

Keywords

surface science molecular electronics charge transfer

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@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0412249,
  title  = {Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts},
  author = {L. Limot and J. Kröger and R. Berndt and A. Garcia-Lekue and W. A. Hofer},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0412249},
  year   = {2016}
}

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4 pages, 4 figures

Atom Transfer and Single-Adatom Contacts

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