Measurement and manipulation of Mn clusters on clean and fullerene terminated Si(111)-7×7

Abstract
We have investigated the properties of Mn clusters deposited on clean semiconductor surfaces using an ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunnelling microscope. The clusters were formed using a gas aggregation source and were deposited on Si(111)-7×7 and Si(111)-7×7 terminated by a C60 monolayer. A distribution of cluster widths was observed with a most frequent value of 2.6 nm. There was no evidence of either cluster coalescence or preferential bonding sites. The clusters had an irregular shape, but did not appear to be grossly deformed upon adsorption onto the surface. The clusters could be selectively removed from the C60 terminated surface during scanning at negative sample bias.