Temperature Dependence of the STM Morphology and Electronic Level Structure of Silver‐Containing DNA

Understanding the effect of external conditions, temperature in particular, on novel nanomaterials is of great significance. The powerful ability of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to characterize topography and electronic levels on a single molecule scale is utilized herein to characterize individual silver‐containing poly(dG)–poly(dC) DNA molecules, at different temperatures. These measurements indicate that the molecule is a truly hybrid metal–organic nanomaterial with electronic states originating from both the DNA and the embedded silver. The temperature dependence of this density of states (DOS) leads to the temperature dependent STM apparent height of the molecule—a phenomenon that has not been observed before for other complex nanostructures.     

Graphene Acoustic Phonon‐Mediated Pseudo‐Landau Levels Tailoring Probed by Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy

Graphene has attracted great interests in various areas including optoelectronics, spintronics, and nanomechanics due to its unique electronic structure, a linear dispersion with a zero bandgap around the Dirac point. Shifts of Dirac cones in graphene creates pseudo‐magnetic field, which generates an energy gap and brings a zero‐magnetic‐field analogue of the quantum Hall effect. Recent studies have demonstrated that graphene pseudo‐magnetic effects can be generated by vacancy defects, atom adsorption, zigzag or armchair edges, and external strain. Here, a larger than 100 T pseudo‐magnetic field is reported that generated on the step area of graphene; and with the ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy, the observed Landau levels can be effectively tailored by graphene phonons. The zero pseudo‐Landau level is suppressed due to the phonon‐mediated inelastic tunneling, and this is observed by the scanning tunneling spectroscopy spectrum and confirmed by the Vienna ab initio simulation package calculation, where graphene phonons modulate the flow of tunneling electrons and further mediate pseudo‐Landau levels. These observations demonstrate a viable approach for the control of pseudo‐Landau levels, which tailors the electronic structure of graphene, and further ignites applications in graphene valley electronics.     

A Paradigm Shift from 2D to 3D: Surface Supramolecular Assemblies and Their Electronic Properties Explored by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Spectroscopy (Small 24/2023)

Exploring supramolecular architectures at surfaces plays an increasingly important role in contemporary science, especially for molecular electronics. A paradigm of research interest in this context is shifting from 2D to 3D that is expanding from monolayer, bilayers, to multilayers. Taking advantage of its high-resolution insight into monolayers and a few layers, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/STS) turns out a powerful tool for analyzing such thin films on a solid surface. This review summarizes the representative efforts of STM/STS studies of layered supramolecular assemblies and their unique electronic properties, especially at the liquid–solid interface. The superiority of the 3D molecular networks at surfaces is elucidated and an outlook on the challenges that still lie ahead is provided. This review not only highlights the profound progress in 3D supramolecular assemblies but also provides researchers with unusual concepts to design surface supramolecular structures with increasing complexity and desired functionality.     

Applications of Fast Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: A Review

This article briefly reviews the recent development in scanning tunneling microscope (STM) technology, namely fast STM, and mainly illustrates how this technology is continuing to expand and enter new scientific and technological territory.     

MgB2 Superconducting Tips for Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study

We report a simple method for the fabrication of reproducible, clean, and stable MgB₂ superconducting tips. The quality of these tips has been verified by imaging the surface of a thin Au(111) film sample, using a low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Using the MgB₂ superconducting tip, high-quality semiatomically resolved STM surface images of the thin Au(111) film sample have been observed, which unambiguously indicates that the fabrication of relatively superconducting MgB₂, suitable for use as STM tips, is feasible.     

Anisotropic Growth and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Identification of Ultrathin Even‐Layered PdSe2 Ribbons

Palladium diselenide (PdSe₂) is an emerging 2D layered material with anisotropic optical/electrical properties, extra‐high carrier mobility, excellent air stability, etc. So far, ultrathin PdSe₂ is mainly achieved via mechanical exfoliation from its bulk counterpart, and the direct synthesis is still challenging. Herein, the synthesis of ultrathin 2D PdSe₂ on conductive Au foil substrates via a facile chemical vapor deposition route is reported. Intriguingly, an anisotropic growth behavior is detected from the evolution of ribboned flakes with large length/width ratios, which is well explained from the orthorhombic symmetry of PdSe₂. A unique even‐layered growth mode from 2 to 20 layers is also confirmed by the perfect combination of onsite scanning tunneling microscopy characterizations, through deliberately scratching the flake edge to expose both even and odd layers. This even‐layered, ribboned 2D material is expected to serve as a perfect platform for exploring unique physical properties, and for developing high‐performance electronic and optoelectronic devices.     

Contrast Reversal in Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Its Implications for the Topological Classification of SmB6

SmB₆ has recently attracted considerable interest as a candidate for the first strongly correlated topological insulator. Such materials promise entirely new properties such as correlation-enhanced bulk bandgaps or a Fermi surface from spin excitations. Whether SmB₆ and its surface states are topological or trivial is still heavily disputed however, and a solution is hindered by major disagreement between angle-resolved photoemission (ARPES) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) results. Here, a combined ARPES and STM experiment is conducted. It is discovered that the STM contrast strongly depends on the bias voltage and reverses its sign beyond 1 V. It is shown that the understanding of this contrast reversal is the clue to resolving the discrepancy between ARPES and STM results. In particular, the scanning tunneling spectra reflect a low-energy electronic structure at the surface, which supports a trivial origin of the surface states and the surface metallicity of SmB₆.