Friction force microscopy measurements on the vacuum-cleaved (001) surfaces of KF, KCl and KBr have been carried out. All surfaces exhibit atomically flat terraces with monatomic steps aligned preferentially along low-index lattice directions. Stick-slip lateral forces with the lattice periodicity are observed on all surfaces. Tip-sample contact creates higher friction domains on the terraces o...

Terraces are traditional engineered ecosystems that affect the hydro-geological equilibrium, slope stability, and local communities. The aims of this paper are (i) identifying environmental factors that affect terrace stability in the Amalfi Coast, (ii) defining agriculturalists' observations on environmental changes within that system and (iii) exploring potentiality of these observations to b...

In the present paper we report a kinetic aspect of molecules on terraces and steps of a surface as observed by scanning probe microscopy, which may be TiO2(110)-(1] 1) relevant to oxide catalysis. When the surface, heated at 400È450 K, was exposed to a 2 formic acid ambient of 1È2 ] 10~6 Pa, small particles were formed on terraces. Post-reaction STM observation revealed that the particle format...

The interface between a two-dimensional (2D) molecular gas and a 2D molecular solid has been imaged with a low-temperature, ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope. The solid consists of benzene molecules strongly bound to step edges on a Cu{111} surface. Benzene molecules on the Cu{111} terraces move freely as a 2D gas at 77 kelvin. Benzene molecules transiently occupy well-defined adso...

We have examined bulk structure models for icosahedral AlPdMn in terms of the densities, compositions, and interplanar spacings for the fivefold planes that might represent physical surface terminations. We focus on four models that contain no partial or mixed occupancies, but some comparison is made to a fifth model containing such sites. Each of the four models contains paired planes (layers)...

We studied the self-organization process of F16CuPc films (20–30 ML) on stepped Al2O3 (112̄0) substrates. X-ray diffraction measurements revealed a highly ordered layered structure with the molecules in a nearly upright configuration. The morphology, investigated by atomic force microscopy, consisted of long (several microns) and narrow (20–100 nm) needlelike terraces unidirectionally aligned al...

Mathematical implications of adding Gaussian white noise to the Burton– Cabrera–Frank model for N terraces (‘gaps’) on a crystal surface are studied under external material deposition for large N. The terraces separate straight, non-interacting line defects (steps) with uniform spacing initially (t = 0). As the growth tends to vanish, the gaps become uncorrelated. First, simple closed-form expr...

Ultrasonic force microscopy (UFM) can be used to image the distribution of elastic modulus up to several tens of GPa, which is not possible by the force modulation mode using a soft cantilever of spring constant less than 1 N m‘. It was shown that by careful design of a piezoelectric transducer, together with a sample with small friction force, deflection vibration of the cantilever without tor...