Regensburg 2016 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 71: Scanning Probe Techniques and New Experimental Methods
O 71.8: Poster
Wednesday, March 9, 2016, 18:15–20:30, Poster A
Hexaboride preparation techniques for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy studies — •Philipp Buchsteiner1, Geetha Balakrishnan2, David P. Young3, and Martin Wenderoth1 — 1IV. Physikalisches Institut, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Germany — 2Department of Physics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom — 3Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, USA
Hexaborides (LaB6, etc.) are widely for technical applications, e.g. Electron Microscopy. Although the surface properties for these applications are important, few Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) studies had been carried out [1,2]. Investigating surfaces with atomic resolution requires sample preparation ensuring atomically flat areas. Therefore different techniques have been developed for two types of single crystals. Samples of about 3mm length were glued onto GaAs. Here the hexaboride (100)-plane is orientated parallel to the GaAs(110) planes. After cleavage, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) studies showed large flat terraces with step heights ranging from a single bulk lattice constant of 0.4nm up to some monolayers. Low-energy Electron Diffraction (LEED) confirmed a non-reconstructed 1x1 surface periodicity. Larger samples with a few cm length and some mm in diameter were cut along the (100)-planes using a diamond wire saw to rectangular pieces. Here no GaAs carrier was obligatory and also large flat surface areas were verified with AFM.
[1] J.S. Ozcomert, M. Trenary, Surf. Sci., 265 (1992), [2] Yee, M. M. et al. arXiv.org, 1308.1085v1 (2013)