Scanning tunneling microscope calibration and reconstruction of real image: Drift and slope elimination

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Abstract
Drift, slope of sample, and indeterminate sensitivity of piezoceramics are considered as the origin of the linear scanning tunneling microscope(STM)image distortions. A special algorithm of STM scanning and reconstruction of image of unknown atomic structures is suggested and tested. This algorithm allows us to measure three components of the drift velocity and two angles, characterizing the average slope of scanning surface. On the one hand, using this algorithm, one can perform the STMcalibration by a known surface structure (for example, the highly oriented pyrolytic graphitesurface) even in the presence of a drift. This enables us to determine all the three piezoceramics constants of STM piezoscanner and the deviation of the real scanner axes X and Y from orthogonality. On the other hand, using such a calibrated STM and the described algorithm, it is possible to obtain the real STMimage and make measurements for unknown surfaces with atomic resolution without the distortions mentioned above. As it has been proved, the error of interatomic distancemeasurements does not exceed 5% (∼0.1 Å) for any direction along the surface, even in the presence of a drift up to 0.4 Å/s and the sample slope angle up to 10°.

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