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Recently, the family of high-resolution scanning probe imaging techniques using decorated tips has been complemented by a method based on inelastic electron tunneling spectroscopy (IETS). The new technique resolves the inner structure of organic molecules by mapping the vibrational energy of a single carbon monoxide (CO) molecule positioned at the apex of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. Here, we explain high-resolution IETS imaging by extending a model developed earlier for STM and atomic force microscopy (ARM) imaging with decorated tips. In particular, we show that the tip decorated with CO acts as a nanoscale sensor that changes the energy of its frustrated translation mode in response to changes of the local curvature of the surface potential. In addition, we show that high resolution AFM, STM, and IETS-STM images can deliver information about the charge distribution within molecules deposited on a surface. To demonstrate this, we extend our mechanical model by taking into account electrostatic forces acting on the decorated tip in the surface Hartree potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Te deposition on Si(111)-(7×7) studied as function of the substrate temperature. • Deposition at T sample =770 K results in Te clusters in the (7×7) half unit cells. • Deposition at T sample =920 K forms a Te/Si(111)-(2 3 × 2 3)R30° surface reconstruction. • Te/Si(111)-(2 3 × 2 3)R30° has an atomically flat surface with threefold symmetry. • Heating the sample to 970 K recovers the clean Si(111)-(7×7) surface. Graphical abstract Abstract The Te-covered Si(111) surface has received recent interest as a template for the epitaxy of van der Waals (vdW) materials, e.g. Bi 2 Te 3. Here, we report the formation of a Te buffer layer on Si(111)–(7×7) by low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). While deposition of several monolayer (ML) of Te on the Si(111)–(7×7) surface at room temperature results in an amorphous Te layer, increasing the substrate temperature to 770 K results in a weak (7×7) electron diffraction pattern. Scanning tunneling microscopy of this surface shows remaining corner holes from the Si(111)–(7×7) surface reconstruction and clusters in the faulted and unfaulted halves of the (7×7) unit cells. Increasing the substrate temperature further to 920 K leads to a Te/Si(111)–(2 3 × 2 3)R30° surface reconstruction. We find that this surface configuration has an atomically flat structure with threefold symmetry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By means of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy (STS), we have investigated the adsorption of single Au atoms on a PTCDA monolayer physisorbed on the Au(111) surface. A chemical reaction between the Au atom and the PTCDA molecule leads to the formation of a radical that has an unpaired electron in its highest occupied orbital. This orbital is a π orbital that extends over the whole Au-PTCDA complex. Because of the large Coulomb repulsion in this orbital, the unpaired electron generates a local moment when the molecule is adsorbed on the Au(111) surface. We demonstrate the formation of the radical and the existence of the local moment after adsorption by observing a zero-bias differential conductance peak that originates from the Kondo effect. By temperature dependent measurements of the zero-bias differential conductance, we determine the Kondo temperature to be TK = (38 ± 8) K. For the theoretical description of the properties of the Au-PTCDA complex we use a hierarchy of methods, ranging from density functional theory (DFT) including a van der Waals correction to many-body perturbation theory (MBPT) and the numerical renormalization group (NRG) approach. Regarding the high-energy orbital spectrum, we obtain an excellent agreement with experiments by both spin-polarized DFT/MBPT and NRG. Moreover, the NRG provides an accurate description of the low-energy excitation spectrum of the spin degree of freedom, predicting a Kondo temperature very close to the experimental value. This is achieved by a detailed analysis of the universality of various definitions of TK and by taking into account the full energy dependence of the coupling function between the molecule-metal complex and the metallic substrate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

High-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) imaging with functionalized tips is well established, but a detailed understanding of the imaging mechanism is still missing. We present a numerical STM/AFM model, which takes into account the relaxation of the probe due to the tip-sample interaction. We demonstrate that the model is able to reproduce very well not only the experimental intra- and intermolecular contrasts, but also their evolution upon tip approach. At close distances, the simulations unveil a significant probe particle relaxation towards local minima of the interaction potential. This effect is responsible for the sharp submolecular resolution observed in AFM/STM experiments. In addition, we demonstrate that sharp apparent intermolecular bonds should not be interpreted as true hydrogen bonds, in the sense of representing areas of increased electron density. Instead, they represent the ridge between two minima of the potential energy landscape due to neighboring atoms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]