{
  "id": "0907.0130",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2009-07-01T12:19:25.000Z",
  "updated": "2009-07-01T12:19:25.000Z",
  "title": "The tip-sample water bridge and light emission from scanning tunnelling microscopy",
  "authors": [
    "Michael G Boyle",
    "J Mitra",
    "Paul Dawson"
  ],
  "doi": "10.1088/0957-4484/20/33/335202",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.mes-hall"
  ],
  "abstract": "Light emission spectrum from a scanning tunnelling microscope (LESTM) is investigated as a function of relative humidity and shown to be a novel and sensitive means for probing the growth and properties of a water meniscus in the nm-scale. An empirical model of the light emission process is formulated and applied successfully to replicate the decay in light intensity and spectral changes observed with increasing relative humidity. The modelling indicates a progressive water filling of the tip-sample junction with increasing humidity or, more pertinently, of the volume of the localized surface plasmons responsible for light emission; it also accounts for the effect of asymmetry in structuring of the water molecules with respect to polarity of the applied bias. This is juxtaposed with the case of a non-polar liquid in the tip-sample nano cavity where no polarity dependence of the light emission is observed. In contrast to the discrete detection of the presence/absence of water bridge in other scanning probe experiments by measurement of the feedback parameter for instrument control LESTM offers a means of continuously monitoring the development of the water bridge with sub-nm sensitivity. The results are relevant to applications such as dip-pen nanolithography and electrochemical scanning probe microscopy.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2009-07-01T12:19:25.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "tip-sample water bridge",
      "scanning tunnelling microscopy",
      "instrument control lestm offers",
      "light emission spectrum",
      "relative humidity"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "journal": "Nanotechnology",
      "year": 2009,
      "month": "Feb",
      "volume": 20,
      "number": 7,
      "pages": "075202"
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 0,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2009Nanot..20g5202B"
    }
  }
}