Scanning probe microscopy articles within Nature

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    By using a pump–probe atomic force microscopy detection scheme, electron spin transitions between non-equilibrium triplet states of individual pentacene molecules, as well as the ability to manipulate electron spins over tens of microseconds, is demonstrated.

    • Lisanne Sellies
    • , Raffael Spachtholz
    •  & Jascha Repp

  • Article
    | Open Access

    A single-element ferroelectric state is observed in a black phosphorus-like bismuth layer, in which the ordered charge transfer and the regular atom distortion between sublattices happen simultaneously and ferroelectric switching is further visualized experimentally.

    • Jian Gou
    • , Hua Bai
    •  & Andrew Thye Shen Wee

  • Article |

    A quantum twisting microscope based on a unique van der Waals tip and capable of performing local interference experiments opens the way for new classes of experiments on quantum materials.

    • A. Inbar
    • , J. Birkbeck
    •  & S. Ilani

  • Article |

    Atomic-level imaging of photocurrents in a single molecule is achieved by combining a tunable laser with scanning tunnelling microscopy, revealing how photons turn into electric current via a photoexcited molecule.

    • Miyabi Imai-Imada
    • , Hiroshi Imada
    •  & Yousoo Kim

  • Article |

    Decoupling spin-polarized edge states using substitutional N-atom dopants along the edges of a zigzag graphene nanoribbon (ZGNR) reveals giant spin splitting of a N-dopant edge state, and supports the predicted emergent magnetic order in ZGNRs.

    • Raymond E. Blackwell
    • , Fangzhou Zhao
    •  & Felix R. Fischer

  • Article |

    Using scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy, fractional edge excitations are observed in nanographene spin chains, enabling the potential to study strongly correlated phases in purely organic materials.

    • Shantanu Mishra
    • , Gonçalo Catarina
    •  & Roman Fasel

  • Article |

    So far, only indirect evidence of Wigner crystals has been reported, but a specially designed scanning tunnelling microscope is used here to directly image them in a moiré heterostructure.

    • Hongyuan Li
    • , Shaowei Li
    •  & Feng Wang

  • Letter |

    Recombination of excitons to produce molecular light emission is made more efficient by controlling electron spin within the molecule to produce spin-triplet excitons only, without the usual accompanying spin-singlet excitons.

    • Kensuke Kimura
    • , Kuniyuki Miwa
    •  & Yousoo Kim

  • Letter |

    Precision control over matter at the atomic scale enables a planar dye molecule to be lifted up and placed on its edge—a configuration that is surprisingly stable.

    • Taner Esat
    • , Niklas Friedrich
    •  & Ruslan Temirov

  • Letter |

    Scanning tunnelling microscopy is used to distinguish between different active sites of a catalyst—such as boundaries between different materials—during a reaction, allowing the contributions of these sites to be evaluated.

    • Jonas H. K. Pfisterer
    • , Yunchang Liang
    •  & Aliaksandr S. Bandarenka

  • Letter |

    Watching a single molecule move calls for measurements that combine ultrafast temporal resolution with atomic spatial resolution; this is now shown to be possible by combining scanning tunnelling microscopy with lightwave electronics, through a technique that involves removing a single electron from the highest occupied orbital of a single pentacene molecule in a time window shorter than an oscillation cycle of light.

    • Tyler L. Cocker
    • , Dominik Peller
    •  & Rupert Huber

  • Letter |

    Luminescence induced by highly localized excitations that are produced by electrons tunnelling from the tip of a scanning tunnelling microscope is used to map the spatial distribution of the excitonic coupling in well-defined arrangements of a few zinc-phthalocyanine molecules and the dependence of this spatial distribution on the relative orientation and phase of the transition dipoles of the individual molecules.

    • Yang Zhang
    • , Yang Luo
    •  & J. G. Hou

  • Letter |

    Theory suggests that many chemical reactions (not simply, as is often thought, redox reactions) might be catalysed by an applied electric field; experimental evidence for this is now provided from single-molecule studies of the formation of carbon–carbon bonds in a Diels–Alder reaction.

    • Albert C. Aragonès
    • , Naomi L. Haworth
    •  & Michelle L. Coote

  • Letter |

    Scanning tunnelling microscopy reveals that molecules of ferrocenecarboxylic acid can self-assemble into quasicrystal monolayers containing highly unusual cyclic hydrogen-bonded pentamers; this molecular framework could form the basis of a large range of supramolecular assemblies.

    • Natalie A. Wasio
    • , Rebecca C. Quardokus
    •  & S. Alex Kandel

  • Letter |

    An innovative technique based on scanning tunnelling probes with integrated thermocouples is developed and used to measure heat dissipation in the electrodes of atomic and molecular junctions.

    • Woochul Lee
    • , Kyeongtae Kim
    •  & Pramod Reddy

  • News & Views |

    Gold is not as inert as was believed — it can promote molecular synthesis. A study uses scanning tunnelling microscopy to catch gold in the act as it guides the formation of one-dimensional polymers from saturated hydrocarbons.

    • Robert J. Madix
    •  & Cynthia M. Friend

  • News & Views |

    The presence of magnetic moments in materials known as Kondo lattices can lead to an exotic transformation in their properties. The first successful endeavour into imaging such a transformation has now been made. See Letter p.362

    • Piers Coleman

  • News & Views |

    Extensive mapping of local electronic structure in copper oxide superconductors reveals fluctuating stripe-like electron patterns that appear as a high-temperature precursor to superconductivity. See Letter p.677

    • Kathryn A. Moler

  • Letter |

    A long-standing question has been the interplay between pseudogap, which is generic to all hole doped copper oxide superconductors, and stripes, whose static form occurs in only one family of copper oxides over a narrow range of the phase diagram. This study reports observations of the spatial reorganization of electronic states with the onset of the pseudogap state at T* in the high temperature superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x using scanning tunnelling microscopy. The onset of the pseudogap phase coincides with the appearance of electronic patterns that have the predicted characteristics of fluctuating stripes. The experiments indicate that stripes are a consequence of pseudogap behaviour rather than its cause.

    • Colin V. Parker
    • , Pegor Aynajian
    •  & Ali Yazdani

  • Letter |

    Advances in nanomagnetics research have brought powerful applications in magnetic sensing technology, but so far no high-resolution magnetic-imaging tool is available to characterize complex, often buried, nanoscale structures. These authors have developed a scanning probe technique in which the intense, confined magnetic field of a micromagnetic probe tip is used to localize the ferromagnetic resonance mode immediately beneath the probe, and demonstrate that they can image magnetic features at a resolution of 200 nm.

    • Inhee Lee
    • , Yuri Obukhov
    •  & P. Chris Hammel

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