Investigation on Nanoscale Imaging of Gold Sputtered Sample by Scanning Tunneling Microscope

• Published in: Materials today : proceedings Vol. 22; pp. 2439 - 2445
• Main Authors: Vithun, S.N., Narendra Reddy, T., Vinod, Prakash
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2020
• Subjects: Nanoscale imaging; Scanning Parameters; Scanning Tunneling Microscope; Nanoscale imaging; Scanning Parameters; Scanning Tunneling Microscope
• ISSN: 2214-7853; 2214-7853
• DOI: 10.1016/j.matpr.2020.03.370

Nanoparticles fascinate because of the unique properties they possess which are different from the properties they have when in macro state, as a result they find application in various fields. Scanning tunneling microscopy is one of the techniques that are used to study the surface topography of a conductive sample on an atomic scale with a depth and lateral resolution in the sub-A0 range. The image quality obtained from the STM depends on many scanning parameters, like PID gains, bias voltage as well as the set current and these parameters are not constant and vary for each sample that is being imaged. For the same sample the scan parameters mentioned above also varies and it depends on the piezo tube behavior as well as the feedback elements that are used in the equipment. This paper mainly focusses on establishing the scanning parameters for imaging the gold sputtered sample by using the STM that is developed in our institute, to achieve high resolution images. The parameters for imaging of gold sputtered samples are established including effect of the scan area on the parameters is also studied.