Dresden 2020 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 89: Poster Session - Oxide and Insulator Surfaces: Structure, Epitaxy and Growth
O 89.4: Poster
Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 18:15–20:00, P2/1OG
Muscovite Mica: Cleaved in UHV, Exposed to Water Vapour, Imaged with nc-AFM — •Sebastian Brandstetter, Michael Schmid, Markus Valtiner, Ulrike Diebold, and Martin Setvín — Institute for Applied Physics, TU Wien, Wiedner Hauptstraße 8-10, 1040, Vienna, Austria
The Muscovite Mica(001) surface is used as an atomically well defined model substrate in a variety of applications ranging from imaging DNA to high resolution studies of solid/liquid interface structures. To prepare a well defined substrate purified water is commonly used to rinse freshly cleaved muscovite to dissolve potassium cations. Little is known about the hydration and mobility of surface cations at the atomic scale. Here we present non-contact AFM measurements in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) resolving single potassium atoms on the UHV-cleaved surface. We find evidence of hydrated potassium atoms after dosing sub-monolayer amounts of molecular H2O to the cleaved sample below temperatures of 140 K. The as-cleaved surface presents domains of uncompensated charges while the adsorption of water molecules at the surface facilitates growth of ice-like structures at temperatures below 5 K.