Tomography of a probe potential using atomic sensors on graphene

Published

November 7, 2016

Author(s)

Jonathan E. Wyrick, Donat F. Natterer, Yue Y. Zhao, Kenji Watanabe, Takashi Taniguchi, William G. Cullen, Joseph A. Stroscio

Abstract

One of the great advances in our ability to probe the quantum world has been the ability to manipulate the electronic structure of materials by constructing artificial nanostructures on surfaces using atomic manipulation of single adatoms with scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes, which has led to a wealth of scientific discoveries1–16. Here we use vertical atom manipulation of Co atoms from a graphene surface onto a probe tip to change and control the probe’s physical structure, enabling us to modify the induced potential at a graphene surface. The remaining Co adatoms on the graphene surface are used to quantitatively map the modified potential exerted by the scanning probe over the whole relevant spatial range. The Co atoms interacting with the low-density two-dimensional graphene carriers acts as an atomic scale sensor enabling potential tomography on an atomic scale even in the general case of a potential lacking spatial symmetry.

Citation

ACS Nano

Volume

10

Issue

12

Pub Type

Journals

Download Paper

https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6b05823

Keywords

scanning tunneling microscopy, scanning tunneling spectroscopy, graphene

Citation

Wyrick, J. , Natterer, D. , Zhao, Y. , Watanabe, K. , Taniguchi, T. , Cullen, W. and Stroscio, J. (2016), Tomography of a probe potential using atomic sensors on graphene, ACS Nano, [online], https://doi.org/10.1021/acsnano.6b05823 (Accessed October 28, 2025)