Journal of Vacuum Science & Technology B, Vol.14, No.3, 1587-1590, 1996
Atomic Species Identification in Scanning-Tunneling-Microscopy by Time-of-Flight Spectroscopy
We report the first chemical identification of a cluster of atoms from identifiable sites on an extended crystal surface. The instrument used combines the functions of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) with a time-of-flight (TOF) atom probe. Atoms are transferred from regions of interest identified in STM images to the tip, from which they are ejected into a TOF spectrometer. Preliminary results are shown in which a cluster of silicon atoms taken from the Si(111) 7 x 7 surface is identified by TOF spectra. Applications of these "atomic tweezers" for microanalysis are discussed.