Assembling and disassembling Ag clusters on Si(111)-(7×7) by vertical atomic manipulation.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 21819127.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/nn202636g.
- No licence information is recorded for this record.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
Atomic manipulation has been rarely used in the studies of complex structures and a low temperature requirement usually limits its application. Herein we have demonstrated a vertical manipulation technique to reproducibly and reversibly manipulating Ag atoms on an Si(111)-(7×7) surface by a scanning tunneling microscope tip at room temperature. Simple and complex Ag nanoclusters were assembled and disassembled with a precise control of single Ag atoms, which provided critical information on the size of these nanoclusters. The manipulation showed the growth processes of these Ag clusters and even partly unveiled their atomic structures. This technique can form a fundamental basis for further studies of the Ag/Si(111)-(7×7) system and for fabricating functional nanodevices in various metal-semiconductor systems.