Making a Monolayer Hole in a Graphite Surface by Means of a Scanning Tunneling Microscope
- 1 May 1990
- journal article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Japanese Journal of Applied Physics
- Vol. 29 (5A) , L815
- https://doi.org/10.1143/jjap.29.l815
Abstract
It is reported that small pits are made in a graphite surface by applying voltage pulses using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A shallow hole, whose diameter was about 10 nm, was formed by creating the pits along the circumference of a circle. The depth of the hole was about 0.35 nm, which is very close to the interlayer distance of graphite. The result indicates the possibility of cutting a piece of layered material by monolayer thickness using an STM. The chemical process of pit formation is discussed.Keywords
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