Subatomic electronic feature from dynamic motion of Si dimer defects in Bi nanolines on Si(001)

C. J. Kirkham, M. Longobardi, S. A. Köster, Ch. Renner, and D. R. Bowler
Phys. Rev. B 96, 075304 – Published 7 August 2017

Abstract

Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) reveals unusual sharp features in otherwise defect-free Bi nanolines self-assembled on Si(001). They appear as subatomic thin lines perpendicular to the Bi nanoline at positive biases and as atomic size beads at negative biases. Density functional theory (DFT) simulations show that these features can be attributed to buckled Si dimers substituting for Bi dimers in the nanoline, where the sharp feature is the counterintuitive signature of these dimers flipping during scanning. The perfect correspondence between the STM data and the DFT simulation demonstrated in this paper highlights the detailed understanding we have of the complex Bi-Si(001) Haiku system. This discovery has applications in the patterning of Si dangling bonds for nanoscale electronics.

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  • Received 10 April 2017
  • Revised 27 June 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.96.075304

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

C. J. Kirkham1,2, M. Longobardi3, S. A. Köster3, Ch. Renner3, and D. R. Bowler2,4

  • 1National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan
  • 2London Centre for Nanotechnology and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University College London, London WC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
  • 3Department of Quantum Matter Physics, University of Geneva, 24 Quai Ernest-Ansermet, CH-1211 Geneva 4, Switzerland
  • 4International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics (MANA), National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Namiki 1-1, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-0044, Japan

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Issue

Vol. 96, Iss. 7 — 15 August 2017

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