Berlin 2015 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 15: Scanning Probe Techniques: STM/AFM
O 15.1: Talk
Monday, March 16, 2015, 15:00–15:15, MA 043
Switching a four-atom Si quantum dot with the tunneling current and atomic force by means of scanning probe microscopy — Shiro Yamazaki1, Keisuke Maeda1, Yoshiaki Sugimoto1, Masayuki Abe1, Vladimir Zobac2, Pablo Pou3, Lucia Rodrigo3, Pingo Mutombo2, Ruben Perez3, •Pavel Jelinek1,2, and Seizo Morita1 — 1Osaka University, Japan — 2Institute of Physics of the CAS, Prague, Czech Republic — 3Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
Most of present switching mechanisms employ the electronic excitation using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). But only few realizations of mechanical switches using non-contact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM) have been reported so far. Here we show that simultaneous combination of the tunneling current (STM) and atomic force (AFM) provides new possibilities to control atomic configuration of nanostructures. First we use atomic manipulation to engineer bi-stable silicon quantum dot (QD) consisting of four buckled atoms on the Si(111)-7x7 surface. We show that application of the force and the current induces the opposite upward and downward switching of atoms in the Si4-QD. This allows us to perform controlled switching between different logical states of Si-QD by the tunneling current and/or the force. What more, simultaneous application of the current and force allows us controlling switching rates. We believe that selective application of two different mechanisms opens new horizons for nanoscale switching devices or atomic manipulation.