Scanning-tunnelling spectroscopy

A major deficiency in scanning tunnelling microscopy is the absence of direct chemical information, but the dependence of the tunnelling current on the local 

Examples of STS that are related to catalysis include the work of Goodman and co-workers,18 19 who have studied the electronic structure of palladium and gold nanoparticles on Ti02 as a function of nanoparticle size using I V curves 

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Hasegawa Y and Avouris Ph 1993 Direct observation of standing wave formation at surface steps using scanning tunnelling spectroscopy Rhys. Rev. Lett. 71 1071... 

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) can, in principle, probe the electronic density of states of a singlewall nanotube, or the outermost cylinder of a multi-wall tubule, or of a bundle of tubules. With this technique, it is further possible to carry out both STS and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements at the same location on the same tubule and, therefore, to measure the tubule diameter concurrently with the STS spectrum. No reports have yet been made of a determination of the chiral angle of a tubule with the STM technique. Several groups have, thus far, attempted STS studies of individual tubules. 

The next smaller ligand-protected nanocluster that was investigated by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) was the four-shell cluster Pt309phen 36O20 [20,21]. The diameter of the Pt core is 1.8 nm, about a tenth of the former example. However, even here a Coulomb blockade could only be observed at 4.2 K, i.e. at room temperature the particle still has metallic behaviour. Since... 

The ESTM experiment provides actually five measurable quantities tunnelling current, / at the applied voltage, U, and three dimensions, x, y, z. The standard STM can therefore easily be modified by recording the local l-Uy U-zy or /-z characteristics (z is vertical distance of the tip from the electrode surface). Plot of dl/dU or d//dz versus x and y brings additional information on the electronic and chemical surface properties (local work functions, density-of-states effects, etc.), since these manifest themselves primarily as l-U dependences. The mentioned plots are basis of the scanning tunnelling spectroscopy (STS). 

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