Synchrotron x-ray scanning tunneling microscopy reaches real-space characterization of just one atom

Volker Rose; Nozomi Shirato; Sarah Wieghold; Daniel Rosenmann; Saw-Wai Hla

doi:10.1117/12.2677894

6 October 2023 Synchrotron x-ray scanning tunneling microscopy reaches real-space characterization of just one atom

Volker Rose, Nozomi Shirato, Sarah Wieghold, Daniel Rosenmann, Saw-Wai Hla

Proceedings Volume PC12698, X-Ray Nanoimaging: Instruments and Methods VI; PC1269808 (2023) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677894
Event: SPIE Optical Engineering + Applications, 2023, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Materials characterization by x-rays requires a large number of atoms and reducing the material quantity for measurements is a long-standing goal. To date, attogram amount of sample can be detected by x-rays; however, this is still in the range of 10,000 atoms or more and gaining access to a much smaller samples is becoming extremely arduous. Synchrotron x-ray scanning tunneling microscopy (SX-STM) combines the chemical contrast of synchrotron x-rays with the locality of STM. In this presentation, we show that x-rays can be used to characterize the elemental and chemical state of just one atom. Using a specialized tip as a detector, x-ray excited currents generated from an iron and a terbium atom coordinated to organic ligands are detected. The fingerprints of a single atom, the L2,3 and M4,5 absorption edge signals for iron and terbium respectively, are clearly observed in x-ray absorption spectra. X-ray excited resonance tunnelling is dominant for the iron atom. The x-ray signal can be sensed only when the tip detector is located directly above the atom in extreme proximity, which confirms atomically localized detection in the tunnelling regime. Our work connects synchrotron x-rays with a quantum tunnelling process and opens future x-rays experiments for simultaneous characterizations of elemental, and chemical properties of materials at the ultimate single atom limit. This work was performed at the Advanced Photon Source and the Center for Nanoscale Materials, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Conference Presentation

Citation Download Citation

Volker Rose, Nozomi Shirato, Sarah Wieghold, Daniel Rosenmann, and Saw-Wai Hla "Synchrotron x-ray scanning tunneling microscopy reaches real-space characterization of just one atom", Proc. SPIE PC12698, X-Ray Nanoimaging: Instruments and Methods VI, PC1269808 (6 October 2023); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2677894

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KEYWORDS

X-rays

Chemical species

Scanning tunneling microscopy

X-ray characterization

Synchrotrons

X-ray microscopy

Iron

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