Atomic scale imaging of monocrystalline Si （001） surface by molecular dynamic simulation

Non-contact atomic force microscopy(nc-AFM) atomic-scale imaging process of monocrystalline silicon surface using capped single-wall carbon nanotube tip is simulated by molecular dynamic method. The simulation results show that the nc-AFM imaging force mainly comes from the C-Si and C-C chemical covalent bonding forces, especially the former, the nonbonding Van der Waals force change is small during the range of stable imaging height. When the tip-surface distance is smaller than the stable imaging height, several neighboring carbon atoms at the tip apex are attracted, and some of them jump onto the sample surface. Finally the tip apex configuration is destroyed with the tip indenting further.

Atomic scale imaging of monocrystalline Si (001) surface by molecular dynamic simulation

Non-contact atomic force microscopy(nc-AFM)atomic-scale imaging process of monocrystalline sili-con surface using capped single-wall carbon nanotube tip is simulated by molecular dynamic method. The simu-lation results show that the nc-AFM imaging force mainly comes from the C-Si and C-C chemical covalent bond-ing forces, especially the former, the nonbonding Van der Waals force change is small during the range of stable imaging height. When the tip-surface distance is smaller than the stable imaging height, several neighboring carbon atoms at the tip apex are attracted, and some of them jump onto the sample surface. Finally the tip apex configuration is destroyed with the tip indenting further.