STM induced modification of gold surface in the presence of TMP amine

In this paper we present scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigations of gold with 2,2,6,6-Tetramethylpiperidine (TMP) overlayer. During the STM experiments the creation of holes and hills or no changes of the surface were observed depending on the applied bias voltage and polarity. No modifications were observed in the bias range from −0.5 to +0.5 V. The holes were created for the bias voltages greater than +0.5 V and hills for the bias voltages lower than −0.5 V. The observed changes of the surface morphology suggest the presence of electrochemical reaction between the tip and the surface. Additionally, our results suggest that TMP lowers the electrochemical activation energy of gold to +0.5 eV.