Structure and contrast in scanning tunneling microscopy of oxides: FeO monolayer on Pt(111)

H. C. Galloway; P. Sautet; M. Salmeron

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.54.R11145

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Structure and contrast in scanning tunneling microscopy of oxides: FeO monolayer on Pt(111)

H. C. Galloway, P. Sautet, and M. Salmeron

Phys. Rev. B 54, R11145(R) – Published 15 October 1996

Abstract

We applied electron-scattering quantum-chemistry theory to investigate the origin of contrast in scanning tunneling microscopy images of iron oxide grown on Pt(111). We show that (a) image contrast and surface topography are not directly related; (b) the maxima in the images occur over O positions for Pt tips and over Fe positions for O-terminated tips; (c) the short-range corrugation is always due to O $p_{z}$ orbitals, with a small but important contribution of Fe; and (d) the state that carriers most of the tunneling current is located near the Fermi level and is made mostly of O $p_{z}$ and Fe $3 d_{z 2}$ orbitals.

Received 1 July 1996

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.54.R11145

Authors & Affiliations

H. C. Galloway^*

Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

P. Sautet

Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, Ecole Normale Superieure, 46, Allée d'Italie, 69464 Lyon, France and Institut de Recherche sur la Catalyse, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique 2, Avenue Albert Einstein, 69626 Villeurbanne, France

M. Salmeron^†

Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory University of California, Berkeley, California 94720 and Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720

^*Present address: Department of Physics, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666.
^†Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: Electronic address: salmeron@stm.lbl.gov

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Vol. 54, Iss. 16 — 15 October 1996

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