Scanning Tunneling Microscopy of Quantum Materials, Devices and Molecules

Summary

This project advances our ability to characterize and study novel quantum materials, quantum devices, and even individual molecules at the atomic level. By combining Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy (NC-AFM), Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and scanning gate methods, we correlate spatial information with transport properties and can locally manipulate charge, spin and structural states. This opens a unique and useful window on the physics of 2D materials, 1D systems such as carbon nanotubes and 0D objects like quantum dots and molecules. We will collaborate with Adam Wei Tsen’s group to study surface electronic transport properties of 2D materials and correlate these with their bulk transport characteristics. We will also apply STM and Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS) to achieve atomic-scale resolution imaging of single molecules in collaboration with David Cory’s group. We expect this project will create a unique capability to probe and manipulate matter at the atomic scale, leading to accelerated development of novel transistors and spintronic devices, quantum sensors, ultra-high density classical and quantum information storage, and novel qubit applications.

Figure 1. Topographic image of exfoliated 1T-TaS2 at 77 K (scale bar = 20 nm) obtained in the scanning tunneling microscope. The colour scale is in picometers. The periodic structure resolved in the main image is a charge density wave known to occur in this material. Inset: magnified image showing both the charge density wave and the underlying atomic lattice (scale bar = 1.4 nm).