Metal-Coated Carbon Nanotube Tip for Scanning Tunneling Microscope

A metal-coated carbon nanotube (CNT) tip for scanning tunneling microscope (STM) has been developed. By pulsed laser deposition (PLD), a CNT attached to a tungsten tip was uniformly coated with 3–6 nm of tungsten thin layer. The observation of a Si(111)-7×7 surface using the tungsten-coated CNT tip demonstrated stable atomic imaging and potentiality of scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurement, which can be achieved from the pristine stage. It was demonstrated that the mechanical robustness and flexibility of the tip were maintained by virtue of the thin coated layer.