Gold nanowires a few atomic diameters wide are observed by ultra-high vacuum transmission electron microscopy, and their conductance measured simultaneously using a scanning tunneling microscope built into the electron microscope. A strand of gold atoms suspended between electrodes is directly observed to have a conductance of 2e2/h (=(12.9 kΩ)-1), where e is the electron charge and h is Planck...

We show that the vibrations of a nanomechanical resonator can be cooled to near its quantum ground state by tunneling injection of electrons from a scanning tunneling microscope tip. The interplay between two mechanisms for coupling the electronic and mechanical degrees of freedom results in a bias-voltage-dependent difference between the probability amplitudes for vibron emission and absorptio...

A technique is presented for fabricating Si nanostructures with a scanning tunneling microscope operated in air. The process involves the direct chemical modification of a H-passivated Si( 100) surface and a subsequent liquid etch. The chemically modified portions of the surface can withstand a deep ( > 100 nm) liquid etch of the unmodified regions with no etch degradation of the modified surfa...

P. H. Penteado,1,2 F. M. Souza,2 A. C. Seridonio,3 E. Vernek,2 and J. C. Egues1 1Instituto de Fı́sica de São Carlos, Universidade de São Paulo, 13560-970, São Carlos, SP, Brazil 2Instituto de Fı́sica, Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, 38400-902, Uberlândia, MG, Brazil 3Departamento de Fı́sica e Quı́mica, Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, 15385-000, Ilha Solteira, SP, Brazil....

A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) was used to manipulate the bonding of a carbon monoxide (CO) molecule and to analyze the structure and vibrational properties of individual products. Individual iron (Fe) atoms were evaporated and coadsorbed with CO molecules on a silver (110) surface at 13 kelvin. A CO molecule was transferred from the surface to the STM tip and bonded with an Fe atom to f...

The authors have developed an ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) variable-temperature four-tip scanning tunneling microscope (STM), operating from room temperature down to 7 K, combined with a scanning electron microscope (SEM). Four STM tips are mechanically and electrically independent and capable of positioning in arbitrary configurations in nanometer precision. An integrated controller system for both ...

An approach to image localized and propagating surface plasmon ~SP! modes is introduced. It is shown that scanning tunneling microscope ~STM!-electroluminescence, the radiative decay of SPs induced by inelastically tunneling electrons, observed in Fourier space yields distinct features that reflect the degree of delocalization and spatial distribution of SP modes. The propagating SP is isolated...

We analyze the efficiency of a vibration isolation system (VIS) for a scanning tunneling microscope as a function of the different parameters involved. The VIS consists of a stack of several metallic plates, separated by rubber elements with known properties. We show three-dimensional graphs obtained for different values of parameters such as rigidity (spring) constant (K), damping constant (C)...