Atom by atom surface chemistry
Miquel B Salmeron,
e-mail:MBSalmeron@lbl.gov
jeudi 22 juin 2000, 10h30
The application of STM to surface studies is having a profound impact in
our understanding of chemisorption and catalysis. Apart from the popular
and visually appealing "images of atoms", STM is providing information that
was previously impossible to obtain using other techniques. With AFM
individual sites such as defects (steps, surface and sub-surface
impurities, etc) can be studied directly and their effect in chemisorption
ascertained. In addition excitations of individual molecules is possible
with the STM, which opens new horizons not only in catalysis but in new
frontier areas such as atomic scale manipulation. I will illustrate these
ideas with results obtained in my laboratory using a low temperature STM.
In the second part of the talk I will show new uses of the STM, including
imaging under high pressures, that helps bridge the pressure gap between
traditional surface science and catalysis.