Issue 20, 2013

Fundamental quantum noise mapping with tunnelling microscopes tested at surface structures of subatomic lateral size

Abstract

We present a measurement scheme that enables quantitative detection of the shot noise in a scanning tunnelling microscope while scanning the sample. As test objects we study defect structures produced on an iridium single crystal at low temperatures. The defect structures appear in the constant current images as protrusions with curvature radii well below the atomic diameter. The measured power spectral density of the noise is very near to the quantum limit with Fano factor F = 1. While the constant current images show detailed structures expected for tunnelling involving d-atomic orbitals of Ir, we find the current noise to be without pronounced spatial variation as expected for shot noise arising from statistically independent events.

Graphical abstract: Fundamental quantum noise mapping with tunnelling microscopes tested at surface structures of subatomic lateral size

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 May 2013
Accepted
28 Jul 2013
First published
01 Aug 2013

Nanoscale, 2013,5, 9978-9983

Fundamental quantum noise mapping with tunnelling microscopes tested at surface structures of subatomic lateral size

M. Herz, S. Bouvron, E. Ćavar, M. Fonin, W. Belzig and E. Scheer, Nanoscale, 2013, 5, 9978 DOI: 10.1039/C3NR02216A

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