Spiral high-speed scanning tunneling microscopy: Tracking atomic diffusion on the millisecond timescale
Leonard Gura, Zechao Yang, Matthias Brinker, Florian Kalaß, William Kirstaedter, Patrik Marschalik, Heinz Junkes, Markus Heyde, Hans‐Joachim Freund
Abstract
Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) is one of the most prominent techniques to resolve atomic structures of flat surfaces and thin films. With the scope to answer fundamental questions in physics and chemistry, it was used to elucidate numerous sample systems at the atomic scale. However, dynamic sample systems are difficult to resolve with STM due to the long acquisition times of typically more than 100 s per image. Slow electronic feedback loops, slow data acquisition, and the conventional raster scan limit the scan speed. Raster scans introduce mechanical noise to the image and acquire data discontinuously. Due to the backward and upward scan or the flyback movement of the tip, image acquisition times are doubled or even quadrupled. By applying the quasi-constant height mode and by using a combination of high-speed electronics for data acquisition and innovative spiral scan patterns, we could increase the frame rate in STM significantly. In the present study, we illustrate the implementation of spiral scan geometries and focus on the scanner input signal and the image visualization. Constant linear and constant angular velocity spirals were tested on the Ru(0001) surface to resolve chemisorbed atomic oxygen. The spatial resolution of the spiral scans is comparable to slow raster scans, while the imaging time was reduced from ∼100 s to ∼8 ms. Within 8 ms, oxygen diffusion processes were atomically resolved.