Heisenberg, uncertainty, and the scanning tunneling microscope

We show by a statistical analysis of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy （STM） exper- iments, that the interpretation of the density of electron charge as a statistical quantity leads to a conflict with the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. Given the precision in these experiments we find that the uncertainty principle would be violated by close to two orders of magnitude, if this interpretation were correct. We are thus forced to conclude that the density of electron charge is a physically real, i.e., in principle precisely measurable quantity.

Measuring fine molecular structures with luminescence signal from an alternating current scanning tunneling microscope

In scanning tunneling microscopy-induced luminescence(STML),the photon count is measured to reflect single-molecule properties,e.g.,the first molecular excited state.The energy of the first excited state is typically shown by a rise of the photon count as a function of the bias voltage between the tip and the substrate.It remains a challenge to determine the precise rise position of the current due to possible experimental noise.In this work,we propose an alternating current version of STML to resolve the fine structures in the photon count measurement.The measured photon count and the current at the long-time limit show a sinusoidal oscillation.The zero-frequency component of the current shows knee points at the precise voltage as the fraction of the detuning between the molecular gap and the DC component of the bias voltage.We propose to measure the energy level with discontinuity of the first derivative of such a zero-frequency component.The current method will extend the application of STML in terms of measuring molecular properties.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopic and Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopic Studies of Nanocrystalline CdSe Thin Film

Nanocrystalline CdSe thin film prepared by chemical solution deposition was imaged in air with a scanning tunnelling microscope(STM). Scanning tunnelling current spectroscopy(STS) was taken at a fixed tip - sample separation. Tunnelling current(i) - voltage(v) curve and differential conductance spectrum show an n-type schottky rectifying behaviour and yield a direct measure of band gap energy. An increase of bandgap energy (1.8 - 2.1eV) was measured indicating energy quantization of this particular thin film.,

Scanning tunnelling microscope studies of growth of RuO2（110） thin layer on Ru（0001）

This paper reports that the growth of RuO2（110） thin layer growth on Ru（0001） has been investigated by means of scanning tunnelling microscope （STM）. The STM images showed a domain structure with three rotational domains of RuO2（110） rotated by an angle of 120°. The as-grown RuO2（110） thin layer is expanded from the bulk-truncated RuO2（110） due to the large mismatch between RuO2（110） and the Ru（0001） substrate. The results also indicate that growth of RuO2（110） thin layer on the Ru（0001） substrate by oxidation tends first to formation of the Ru-O （oxygen） chains in the [001] direction of RuO2 （110）.

Visualizing interface states in In_(2)Se_(3)–WSe_(2)monolayer lateral heterostructures

Recent findings of two-dimensional(2D)ferroelectric(FE)materials provide more possibilities for the development of 2D FE heterostructure electronic devices based on van der Waals materials and the application of FE devices under the limit of atomic layer thickness.In this paper,we report the in-situ fabrication and probing of electronic structures of In_(2)Se_(3)–WSe_(2) lateral heterostructures,compared with most vertical FE heterostructures at present.Through molecular beam epitaxy,we fabricated lateral heterostructures with monolayer WSe_2(three atomic layers)and monolayer In_(2)Se_(3)(five atomic layers).Type-Ⅱband alignment was found to exist in either the lateral heterostructure composed of anti-FEβ′-In_(2)Se_(3) and WSe_(2) or the lateral heterostructure composed of FEβ*-In_(2)Se_(3)and WSe_2,and the band offsets could be modulated by ferroelectric polarization.More interestingly,interface states in both lateral heterostructures acted as narrow gap quantum wires,and the band gap of the interface state in theβ*-In_(2)Se_(3)–WSe_(2)heterostructure was smaller than that in theβ′-In_(2)Se_(3)heterostructure.The fabrication of 2D FE heterostructure and the modulation of interface state provide a new platform for the development of FE devices.

Single-molecule biotechnology for protein researches

Cells employ proteins to perform metabolic functions and maintain active physiological state through charge transfer and energy conversion.These processes are carried out in a narrow space precisely and rapidly,which,no doubt,bring great difficulty for their detection and dissection.Fortunately,in recent years,the development and expansion of single-molecule technique in protein research make monitoring the dynamical changes of protein at single-molecule level a reality,which also provides a powerful tool for the further exploration of new phenomena and new mechanisms of life activities.This paper aims to summarize the working principle and essential achievements of single-molecule technique in protein research in recent five years.We focus on not only dissecting the difference of nanopores,atomic force microscope,scanning tunneling microscope,and optical tweezers technique,but also discussing the great significance of these single-molecule techniques in investigating intramolecular and intermolecular interactions,electron transport,and conformational changes.Finally,the opportunities and challenges of the single-molecule technique in protein research are discussed,which provide a new door for single-molecule protein research.

Isolated supramolecules on surfaces studied with scanning tunneling microscopy

To date, supramolecular chemistry is an ever growing research field owing to its crucial role in molecular catalysis, recognition, medicine, data storage and processing as well as artificial photosynthetic devices.Different isolated supramolecules were prepared by molecular self-assembly on surfaces. This review mainly focuses on supramolecular aggregations on noble metal surfaces studied by scanning tunneling microscopy, including dimers, trimers, tetramers, pentamers, wire-like assemblies and Sierpin′ ski triangular fractals. The variety of self-assembled structures reflects the subtle balance between intermolecular and molecule–substrate interactions, which to some extent may be controlled by molecules, substrates and the molecular coverage. The comparative study of different architectures helps identifying the operative mechanisms that lead to the structural motifs. The application of these mechanisms may lead to novel assemblies with tailored physicochemical properties.

Direct observation of the scaling relation between density of states and pairing gap in a dirty superconductor

Theories and experiments on dirty superconductors are complex but important in terms of both theoretical fundamentals and practical applications.These activities are even more challenging when magnetic fields are present because the field distribution,electron density of states,and superconducting pairing potentials become nonuniform.Here,we present tunneling microspectroscopic experiments on NbC single crystals and demonstrate that NbC is a homogeneous dirty superconductor.When applying magnetic fields to the samples,we found that the zero-energy local density of states and the pairing energy gap followed the explicit scaling relation proposed by de Gennes for homogeneous dirty superconductors in high magnetic fields.More significantly,our experimental findings indicate that the validity of the scaling relation extends to magnetic field strengths far below the upper critical field,calling for a new nonperturbative understanding of this fundamental property in dirty superconductors.On the practical side,we used the observed scaling relation to derive a simple and straightforward experimental scheme for estimating the superconducting coherence length of a dirty superconductor in magnetic fields.

Machine learning identification of impurities in the STM images

We train a neural network to identify impurities in the experimental images obtained by the scanning tunneling microscope(STM)measurements.The neural network is first trained with a large number of simulated data and then the trained neural network is applied to identify a set of experimental images taken at different voltages.We use the convolutional neural network to extract features from the images and also implement the attention mechanism to capture the correlations between images taken at different voltages.We note that the simulated data can capture the universal Friedel oscillation but cannot properly describe the non-universal physics short-range physics nearby an impurity,as well as noises in the experimental data.And we emphasize that the key of this approach is to properly deal with these differences between simulated data and experimental data.Here we show that even by including uncorrelated white noises in the simulated data,the performance of the neural network on experimental data can be significantly improved.To prevent the neural network from learning unphysical short-range physics,we also develop another method to evaluate the confidence of the neural network prediction on experimental data and to add this confidence measure into the loss function.We show that adding such an extra loss function can also improve the performance on experimental data.Our research can inspire future similar applications of machine learning on experimental data analysis.

Measuring thermoelectric property of nano-heterostructure

A method of measuring the thermoelectric power of nano-heterostructures based on four-probe scanning tunneling microscopy is presented. The process is composed of the in-situ fabrication of a tungsten-indium tip, the precise control of the tip-sample contact and the identification of thermoelectric potential. When the temperature of the substrate is elevated, while that of the tip is kept at room temperature, a thermoelectric potential occurs and can be detected by a current voltage measurement. As an example of its application, the method is demonstrated to be effective to measure the thermoelectric power in several systems. A Seebeck coefficient of tens of IxV/K is obtained in graphene epitaxially grown on Ru （0001） substrate and the thermoelectric potential polarity of this system is found to be the reverse of that of bare Ru （0001） substrate.

Elastic scattering of surface states on three-dimensional topological insulators

Topological insulators as a new type of quantum matter materials are characterized by a full insulating gap in the bulk and gapless edge/surface states protected by the time-reversal symmetry. We propose that the interference patterns caused by the elastic scattering of defects or impurities are dominated by the surface states at the extremal points on the constant energy contour. Within such a formalism, we summarize our recent theoretical investigations on the elastic scattering of topological surface states by various imperfections, including non-magnetic impurities, magnetic impurities, step edges, and various other defects, in comparison with the recent related experiments in typical topological materials such as BiSb alloys, Bi2Te3, and Bi2Se3 crystals.

Two-dimensional Sb cluster superlattice on Si substrate fabricated by a two-step method

Nanoclusters consisting of a few atoms have attracted a lot of research interests due to their exotic size-dependent properties. Here, well-ordered two-dimensional Sb cluster superlattice was fabricated on Si substrate by a two-step method and characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy. High resolution scanning tunneling microscope measurements revealed the fine structures of the Sb clusters, which consist of several Sb atoms ranging from 2 to 7. Furthermore, the electronic structure of the nanocluster displays the quantized energy-level which is due to the single-electron tunneling effects. We believe that the fabrication of Sb cluster superlattice broadens the species of the cluster superlattice and provides a promising candidate to further explore the novel physical and chemical properties of the semimetal nanocluster.

Experimental observation of pseudogap in a modulation-doped Mott insulator:Sn/Si(111)-(√3×√3)R30°

Unusual quantum phenomena usually emerge upon doping Mott insulators.Using a molecular beam epitaxy system integrated with cryogenic sc√annin√g tunneling microscope,we investigate the electronic structure of a modulation-doped Mott insulator Sn/Si(111)-(√3×√3)R30°.In underdoped regions,we observe a universal pseudogap opening around the Fermi level,which changes little with the applied magnetic field and the occurrence of Sn vacancies.The pseudogap gets smeared out at elevated temperatures and alters in size with the spatial confinement of the Mott insulating phase.Our findings,along with the previously observed superconductivity at a higher doping level,are highly reminiscent of the electronic phase diagram in the doped copper oxide compounds.

Monolayer MoS_(2)of high mobility grown on SiO_(2)substrate by two-step chemical vapor deposition

We report a novel two-step ambient pressure chemical vapor deposition(CVD)pathway to grow high-quality Mo S_(2)monolayer on the Si O_(2)substrate with large crystal size up to 110μm.The large specific surface area of the pre-synthesized Mo O_(3)flakes on the mica substrate compared to Mo O_(3)powder could dramatically reduce the consumption of the Mo source.The electronic information inferred from the four-probe scanning tunneling microscope(4P-STM)image explains the threshold voltage variations and the n-type behavior observed in the two-terminal transport measurements.Furthermore,the direct van der Pauw transport also confirms its relatively high carrier mobility.Our study provides a reliable method to synthesize high-quality Mo S_(2)monolayer,which is confirmed by the direct 4P-STM measurement results.Such methodology is a key step toward the large-scale growth of transition metal dichalcogenides(TMDs)on the Si O_(2)substrate and is essential to further development of the TMDs-related integrated devices.

Molecular beam epitaxy growth of iodide thin films

Study of two-dimensional(2D)magnetic materials is important for both fundamental research and application.Here we report molecular beam epitaxy growth of iodides,candidates for exhibiting 2D magnetism.Decomposition of CrI_(3)is utilized to produce stable gaseous I_(2)flux.Growth of MnI_(2),GdI_(3),and CrI_(2)down to monolayer is successful achieved by co-depositing I2 and corresponding metal atoms.The thin films of the three materials are characterized by scanning tunneling microscope and found to be insulators with bandgaps of 4.4 e V,0.6 e V,and 3.0 e V,respectively.The film growth paves the way for further study of magnetic properties at the 2 D limit.

Epitaxial growth of antimony nanofilms on HOPG and thermal desorption to control the film thickness

Group-V elemental nanofilms were predicted to exhibit interesting physical properties such as nontrivial topological properties due to their strong spin-orbit coupling,the quantum confinement,and surface effect.It was reported that the ultrathin Sb nanofilms can undergo a series of topological transitions as a function of the film thickness h:from a topological semimetal(h>7.8 nm)to a topological insulator(7.8 nm>h>2.7 nm),then a quantum spin Hall(QSH)phase(2.7 nm>h>1.0 nm)and a topological trivial semiconductor(h<1.0 nm).Here,we report a comprehensive investigation on the epitaxial growth of Sb nanofilms on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite(HOPG)substrate and the controllable thermal desorption to achieve their specific thickness.The morphology,thickness,atomic structure,and thermal-strain effect of the Sb nanofilms were characterized by a combination study of scanning electron microscopy(SEM),atomic force microscopy(AFM),and scanning tunneling microscopy(STM).The realization of Sb nanofilms with specific thickness paves the way for the further exploring their thickness-dependent topological phase transitions and exotic physical properties.

The influence of annealing temperature on the morphology of graphene islands

We report on temperature-programmed growth of graphene islands on Ru （0001） at annealing temperatures of 700 ℃, 800 ℃, and 900 ℃. The sizes of the islands each show a nonlinear increase with the annealing temperature. In 700 ℃ and 800 ℃annealings, the islands have nearly the same sizes and their ascending edges are embedded in the upper steps of the ruthenium substrate, which is in accordance with the etching growth mode. In 900 ℃ annealing, the islands are much larger and of lower quality, which represents the early stage of Smoluchowski ripening. A longer time annealing at 900 ℃ brings the islands to final equilibrium with an ordered moire pattern. Our work provides new details about graphene early growth stages that could facilitate the better control of such a growth to obtain graphene with ideal size and high quality.

Edge-and strain-induced band bending in bilayer-monolayer Pb_(2)Se_(3) heterostructures

By using scanning tunneling microscope/microscopy(STM/STS), we reveal the detailed electronic structures around the sharp edges and strained terraces of lateral monolayer-bilayer Pd_(2)Se_(3) heterostructures. We find that the edges of such heterostructures are well-defined zigzag type. Band bending and alignment are observed across the zigzag edge, forming a monolayer-bilayer heterojunction. In addition, an n-type band bending is induced by strain on a confined bilayer Pd_(2)Se_(3) terrace. These results provide effective toolsets to tune the band structures in Pd_(2)Se_(3)-based heterostructures and devices.

Atomic-level characterization of liquid/solid interface

The detailed understanding of various underlying processes at liquid/solid interfaces requires the development of interface-sensitive and high-resolution experimental techniques with atomic precision.In this perspective,we review the recent advances in studying the liquid/solid interfaces at atomic level by electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope(EC-STM),non-contact atomic force microscopy(NC-AFM),and surface-sensitive vibrational spectroscopies.Different from the ultrahigh vacuum and cryogenic experiments,these techniques are all operated in situ under ambient condition,making the measurements close to the native state of the liquid/solid interface.In the end,we present some perspectives on emerging techniques,which can defeat the limitation of existing imaging and spectroscopic methods in the characterization of liquid/solid interfaces.

Epitaxial synthesis and electronic properties of monolayer Pd2Se3

Two-dimensional(2D)materials received large amount of studies because of the enormous potential in basic science and industrial applications.Monolayer Pd2Se3 is a fascinating 2D material that was predicted to possess excellent thermoelectric,electronic,transport,and optical properties.However,the fabrication of large-scale and high-quality monolayer Pd2Se3 is still challenging.Here,we report the synthesis of large-scale and high-quality monolayer Pd2Se3 on graphene-SiC(0001)by a two-step epitaxial growth.The atomic structure of Pd2Se3 was investigated by scanning tunneling microscope(STM)and confirmed by non-contact atomic force microscope(nc-AFM).Two subgroups of Se atoms have been identified by nc-AFM image in agreement with the theoretically predicted atomic structure.Scanning tunneling spectroscopy(STS)reveals a bandgap of 1.2 eV,suggesting that monolayer Pd2Se3 can be a candidate for photoelectronic applications.The atomic structure and defect levels of a single Se vacancy were also investigated.The spatial distribution of STS near the Se vacancy reveals a highly anisotropic electronic behavior.The two-step epitaxial synthesis and characterization of Pd2Se3 provide a promising platform for future investigations and applications.