Scanning tunneling microscopy applied

Two complementary articles related to semiconductor surfaces are Scanning tunnelling microscopy of semiconductor surfaces by H. Neddermeyer, in Rep. Prog. Phys., 59, 701 (1996) and Theory of semiconductor surface reconstruction by G. P. Srivastava, in Rep. Prog. Phys., 60, 561 (1997). The article on scanning tunneling microscopy applied to semiconductor surfaces is replete with pictures of some of the huge variety of surfaces that have been considered in semiconductor systems. 

Behm, R.J., Garcia, R. and Rohrer, H, (1990) Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy and Related Methods, NATO ASI Series, Series E Applied Sciences, Vol. 184, Kluwer Academic Publishers,... 

An unusually extensive battery of experimental techniques was brought to bear on these comparisons of enantiomers with their racemic mixtures and of diastereomers with each other. A very sensitive Langmuir trough was constructed for the project, with temperature control from 15 to 40°C. In addition to the familiar force/area isotherms, which were used to compare all systems, measurements of surface potentials, surface shear viscosities, and dynamic suface tensions (for hysteresis only) were made on several systems with specially designed apparatus. Several microscopic techniques, epi-fluorescence optical microscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, and electron microscopy, were applied to films of stearoylserine methyl ester, the most extensively investigated surfactant. 

Hovis, J. S., Liu, H. and Hamers, R. J. Scanning-tunneling-microscopy of cyclic unsaturated organic-molecules on Si(001). Applied Physics -Materials Science Processing 66, S553-S557 (1998). 

The last part of the chapter refers to the use of techniques that are relatively new. They consist of scanning tunneling microscopy and atomic force microscopy by which one can get better than 10 A resolution in looking at surfaces. A laser beam, in collaboration with a quadrupole mass spectrometer, can be used to detect local hydrogen with a resolution of about 0.1-1 pm. Finally, ideas of electronic noise are applied to the random fluctuations of the potential of an electrode and can give a value of the corrosion current without any influence of the IR drop. This has made the method particularly useful for nonaqueous solutions. 

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