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Subatomic-scale force vector mapping above a Ge(001) dimer using bimodal atomic force microscopy

Nature Physics volume 13, pages 663–667 (2017)Cite this article

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Abstract

Probing physical quantities on the nanoscale that have directionality, such as magnetic moments, electric dipoles, or the force response of a surface, is essential for characterizing functionalized materials for nanotechnological device applications1,2,3. Currently, such physical quantities are usually experimentally obtained as scalars. To investigate the physical properties of a surface on the nanoscale in depth, these properties must be measured as vectors. Here we demonstrate a three-force-component detection method, based on multi-frequency atomic force microscopy on the subatomic scale4,5,6,7,8,9 and apply it to a Ge(001)-c(4 × 2) surface. We probed the surface-normal and surface-parallel force components above the surface and their direction-dependent anisotropy and expressed them as a three-dimensional force vector distribution. Access to the atomic-scale force distribution on the surface will enable better understanding of nanoscale surface morphologies, chemical composition and reactions10,11, probing nanostructures via atomic or molecular manipulation12,13, and provide insights into the behaviour of nano-machines on substrates14,15.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the 3D force detection method on a Ge(001)-c(4 × 2) surface using bimodal AFM.
Figure 2: Force component maps and force vector distributions above Ge(001) dimers.
Figure 3: Force component mappings and lateral force vector distributions on the Ge(001)-c(4 × 2) surface.
Figure 4: Simulated force component mapping on the Ge(001)-c(4 × 2) surface.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to L. Kantorovich, King’s College London, and T. Glatzel, University of Basel, for their valuable contributions. This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (Grant No. 26286007) from JSPS, Grant-in-Aid for Exploratory Research (Grant No. 15K13275) from JSPS, APVV-0759-15, VEGA 2/0162/15, and by V4-Japan Joint Research Program on Advanced Materials (NaMSeN) projects. We also gratefully acknowledge use of the Hitachi SR16000/M1 supercomputer system at CCMS/IMR, Tohoku University, Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics, Osaka University, Yamada-oka 2-1, Suita 565-0871, Japan

    Yoshitaka Naitoh, Yan Jun Li & Yasuhiro Sugawara

  2. CCMS, Institute of Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 84511 Bratislava, Slovakia

    Robert Turanský, Ján Brndiar & Ivan Štich

  3. Institute of Informatics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 845 07 Bratislava, Slovakia

    Ivan Štich

  4. Department of Natural Sciences, University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius, 917 01 Trnava, Slovakia

    Ivan Štich

Authors
  1. Yoshitaka Naitoh
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  2. Robert Turanský
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  3. Ján Brndiar
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  4. Yan Jun Li
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  5. Ivan Štich
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  6. Yasuhiro Sugawara
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Contributions

Y.N. and Y.S. conceived 3D force vector mapping using bimodal AFM. Y.N. performed the AFM experiments and analysed the data. R.T., J.B. and I.S. performed DFT calculations. Y.N. and I.S. wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Yoshitaka Naitoh or Ivan Štich.

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Naitoh, Y., Turanský, R., Brndiar, J. et al. Subatomic-scale force vector mapping above a Ge(001) dimer using bimodal atomic force microscopy. Nature Phys 13, 663–667 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys4083

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