Nano-contact microscopy of supracrystals

• Adam Sweetman,
• Nicolas Goubet,
• Ioannis Lekkas,
• Marie Paule Pileni and
• Philip Moriarty

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol. 2015, 6, 1229–1236, doi:10.3762/bjnano.6.126

• tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. Keywords: dynamic force microscopy; nanoparticle; non-contact atomic force microscopy; point contact imaging; scanning probe microscopy; supracrystal; Introduction Artificial solids comprising extended assemblies of nanocrystals with a narrow size distribution

• exploited in conventional tunnelling microscopy. The possibility of atomic scale point-contact imaging in STM was recognised by Smith et al. almost three decades ago [22], and in the intervening years, the relationship between the variation in the tunnel current and the tip–sample force as a function of