Image of the Month

May 2009

Tartaric Acid, C4H6O6, Grown on Ag(111)

iotm-may-2009

The image was taken at 50 mV and 100 pA, and at 83 K, with a home-built STM operating in constant current mode. It shows a multilayer structure for (/S/,/S/)-tartaric acid, C4H6O6, grown on Ag(111). Each bright oval in the first layer, along with each bright circle in the overlayer, corresponds to a single tartaric acid molecule. The feature along the right side of the image is a single Ag(111) step.

Microscope:
Home-Built STM Operating in Constant Current Mode

Controls:
RHK Technology SPM 1000 Control System

Contributors:
Nancy Santagata, Pengshun Luo, Amit Lakhani, Darryl Dewitt, B. Scott Day, Michael Norton, Thomas Pearl
Pearl Group – Department of Physics, North Carolina State University