1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
Development of STM operational in a plasma and its application to a control of plasma materials surface processing on an atomic scale
| Project/Area Number |
09555215
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 展開研究 |
|---|
| Research Field |
Material processing/treatments
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
TERASHIMA Kazuo The University of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, Assoc.Prof., 大学院・工学系研究科, 助教授 (30176911)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1997 – 1998
|
| Keywords | Plasma environment / STM (scanning tunneling microscope) / plasma-solid surface interface / etching / atomic image / plasma surface processing |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
In this project, we performed the first attempt at the development of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) for use under a plasma environment. The apparatus consists of an STM system and a radio-frequency (rf) (430MHz) plasma generation system housed in a vacuum chamber with a rotary pump. A special amplifier with a resolution of 10 femtoamp. up to 1kV is employed for tunneling current measurements. To prevent noise current from the plasma, the Pt-Ir probe tip is coated with epoxy grease and insulated glass using the sol-gel method except around its apex of about 3 mum. Under the conventional glow-plasma condition, the noise current from the plasma was deduced to be less than 0.1 nA during plasma exposure for 1800 sec. Using this apparatus, the step structure on a nanometer scale and atomic image of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) were obtained under rf, low-pressure (0.3 Tbrr) air glow plasma. We also discussed the role of the STM tip for successful, realistic "in situ" observation.
|
