Tunneling spectroscopy of clean and adsorbate-covered gold surfaces in humid air, measured with fast bias voltage ramps

The noise level of tunneling spectroscopic data can be significantly reduced by averaging the tunneling current over a large number of short bias voltage ramps, instead of recording over a single slow ramp. This effect is demonstrated for tunneling spectra of Au(111) by averaging over 200 consecutive bias voltage ramps, each 500 μs long. We attribute the improvement of the data quality to the frequency dependence of the current noise spectral density. Due to mechanical vibrations and tip instabilities the noise density is usually much higher for low frequencies ca. < 1 kHz than for the high frequencies relevant for measuring with fast bias ramps. The high data quality allowed for the routine detection of the Au(111) surface state and the investigation of the influence of steps in humid air, i.e., with a water-covered tunneling gap. For a CN covered Au surface in the presence of water we unexpectedly found additional electronic density of states at positive energies, around 0.6 eV, i.e., for unoccupied states. STS spectra of a 3×3R30° Cu-UPD layer, formed by adsorbed sulfate and Cu species, indicate tunneling via the sulfate electronic density of states.