Article ID | Journal | Published Year | Pages | File Type |
---|---|---|---|---|
5424316 | Surface Science | 2009 | 6 Pages |
Abstract
The spatially controlled field assisted etching method for sharpening metallic tips, in a field ion microscope (FIM), is used to study the evolution of the field emission when the tip apex radius is decreased below 1Â nm. Unlike the conventional image formation in a field emission microscope (FEM), we demonstrate that at this scale the field emission is rather confined to atomic sites. A single atom apex fabricated at the end of such tips exhibits an outstanding brightness compared to other atomic tips. The measurements have been repeated for two double atom tips, with different atom-atom separations, and images of atomic field emission localization have also been obtained. We have found that the field emission intensity alternates between adjacent atoms when the applied voltage is gradually increased beyond a threshold value.
Related Topics
Physical Sciences and Engineering
Chemistry
Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
Authors
Moh'd Rezeq, Christian Joachim, N. Chandrasekhar,