Charge-State-Dependent Diffusion of Individual Gold Adatoms on Ionic Thin NaCl Films

Repp, Jascha, Steurer, Wolfram, Scivetti, Ivan, Persson, Mats ORCID: 0000-0002-1443-9490, Gross, Leo and Meyer, Gerhard (2016) Charge-State-Dependent Diffusion of Individual Gold Adatoms on Ionic Thin NaCl Films. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS, 117 (14). 146102-.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.117.146102

Abstract

It is known that individual metal atoms on insulating ionic films can occur in several different (meta)stable charge states, which can be reversibly switched in a controlled fashion. Here we show that the diffusion of gold adatoms on NaCl thin films depends critically on their charge state. Surprisingly, the anionic species has a lower diffusion barrier than the neutral one. Furthermore, for the former we observe that the diffusion atop a bilayer of NaCl is strongly influenced by the interface between NaCl and the underlying copper substrate. This effect disappears for a trilayer of NaCl. These observations open the prospect of controlling the diffusion properties of individual metal atoms on thin insulating films.

Item Type:	Article
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	08 Nov 2016 14:59
Last Modified:	19 Jan 2023 07:25
DOI:	10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.146102
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3004430