DOI: 10.1126/science.1150288. The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface

The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface

10.1126/science.1150288

Crossref journal-article

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

Science (221)

Abstract

Manipulation of individual atoms and molecules by scanning probe microscopy offers the ability of controlled assembly at the single-atom scale. However, the driving forces behind atomic manipulation have not yet been measured. We used an atomic force microscope to measure the vertical and lateral forces exerted on individual adsorbed atoms or molecules by the probe tip. We found that the force that it takes to move an atom depends strongly on the adsorbate and the surface. Our results indicate that for moving metal atoms on metal surfaces, the lateral force component plays the dominant role. Furthermore, measuring spatial maps of the forces during manipulation yielded the full potential energy landscape of the tip-sample interaction.

Bibliography

Ternes, M., Lutz, C. P., Hirjibehedin, C. F., Giessibl, F. J., & Heinrich, A. J. (2008). The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface. Science, 319(5866), 1066â1069.

Authors 5

Markus Ternes (first)
Christopher P. Lutz (additional)
Cyrus F. Hirjibehedin (additional)
Franz J. Giessibl (additional)
Andreas J. Heinrich (additional)

References 30 Referenced 408

10.1038/344524a0
10.1126/science.262.5131.218
10.1126/science.1075242
10.1103/PhysRevB.60.R8529
10.1126/science.1125398
10.1103/PhysRevLett.85.2777
10.1126/science.1095069
10.1103/PhysRevLett.79.697
10.1126/science.1102370
10.1088/0957-4484/16/3/021
10.1038/nmat1297
10.1103/PhysRevLett.98.106104
10.1063/1.347347
10.1063/1.126067
Detecting G allows us to assign z ≡ 0 throughout this work as the extrapolated tip height where the conductance to the bare surface is equal to G 0 (fig. S3A). This approach provides a convenient reference for z which corresponds roughly to the point contact between the tip and the bare surface. This assignment does not necessarily provide direct comparison of the tip heights between the two surfaces explored in this work. The measured conductance is an average over the tip oscillation. For the amplitude A = 30 pm used here the conductance differs by only ∼11% from the value of a nonoscillating tip at the same mean height.
10.1126/science.289.5478.422
10.1063/1.1667267
S. Morita R. Wiesendanger E. Meyer Eds. Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy (Springer Berlin 2002). (10.1007/978-3-642-56019-4)
We corroborate this assumption with measurements of the power dissipation. Dissipative components in the tip-sample interaction cause an increase in the power required to maintain a constant oscillation amplitude. In our experiment the energy stored in the mechanical motion of the tip is only E = ½ k 0 A 2 ≈ 5 eV. The cantilever has a mechanical quality factor of Q ≈ 35 000 so that the intrinsic energy loss per oscillation cycle [= 2π E / Q see ( 18 )] is less than 1 meV. Therefore we estimate that the dissipative interaction between tip and sample is less than 1% of the typical conservative interaction so it can be safely neglected; see fig. S5 for more information.
10.1063/1.1525056
The ±10% uncertainty of the cantilever stiffness produces a systematic error. In addition the uncertainties given in the text include the error due to the finite tip-height increments (±10%) and the effect that different tips ( 22 ) produce slightly different results (±5%).
Throughout this work we refer to a changed atomic arrangement at the tip apex (e.g. by touching the tip to the surface) as a different tip.
10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.266101
10.1038/376238a0
K.-F. Braun, S.-W. Hla, Phys. Rev. B75, 033406 (2007). / Phys. Rev. B (2007)
For each lateral tip position the k z images for heights above the manipulation threshold were laterally shifted to the location of the binding site nearest the tip. Because dissipation occurred when the atom hopped comparison of energies between different binding sites might not be valid but energies within the basin around any one binding site are correct. For more details see fig. S5.
10.1103/PhysRevB.68.205411
10.1063/1.2124687
P. Buluschek thesis École Polytechnique Fédéral de Lausanne Switzerland (2007).
We thank B. J. Melior G. Zeltzer and M. Breitschaft for expert technical assistance and A. F. Otte D. M. Eigler A. Schwarz J. Mannhart and W. Chaisangmongkon for stimulating discussions. We acknowledge financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (to M.T.) the Office of Naval Research (to M.T. C.P.L. and A.J.H.) and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (to F.J.G.).

Dates

Type	When
Created	17 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 21, 2008, 4:54 p.m.)
Deposited	1 year, 7 months ago (Jan. 10, 2024, 4:49 a.m.)
Indexed	34 minutes ago (Aug. 29, 2025, 12:25 p.m.)
Issued	17 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 22, 2008)
Published	17 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 22, 2008)
Published Print	17 years, 6 months ago (Feb. 22, 2008)

Funders 0

None

BibTeX

@article{Ternes_2008, title={The Force Needed to Move an Atom on a Surface}, volume={319}, ISSN={1095-9203}, url={http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.1150288}, DOI={10.1126/science.1150288}, number={5866}, journal={Science}, publisher={American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)}, author={Ternes, Markus and Lutz, Christopher P. and Hirjibehedin, Cyrus F. and Giessibl, Franz J. and Heinrich, Andreas J.}, year={2008}, month=feb, pages={1066–1069} }

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