• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.28 no.12
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• pp.2445-2448
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• 2007

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) were formed by adsorption of thioacetyl-terminated tolanethioacetate (TTA) on Au(111) in a 0.5-mM ethanol solution after one day immersion at room temperature. Molecular-scale STM imaging revealed that the TTA SAMs were composed of two mixed phases; an ordered phase with small domains describing a ( × 2 )R30° structure and a disordered phase. Interestingly, after annealing the precovered TTA SAMs on Au(111) at 90 °C for 1 h, the small ordered domains grew unidirectionally, resulting in the formation of unique rod-like domains, which were assigned a ( × 2 )R7° structure. These results will be very useful in understanding the formation and thermal behavior of TTA SAMs on gold surfaces.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.202-208
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• 2002

We have been investigating electropolymerization of pyrrole in aqueous electrolyte solutions in acidic as well as in neutral conditions by in situ electrochemical quartz crystal oscillator method, where resonant frequency and resonant resistance can be monitored simultaneously with current-voltage measurements during electropolymerization of pyrrole. The properties of thin PPy films prepared on electrode surfaces depended strongly on the experimental variables of electrode potentials applied, solution pH, kinds and quantity of supporting electrolytes, added chemicals, and the mode of electrochemical method employed. We are applying our experience gained on electropolymerization of pyrrole to immobilizing biomolecules onto electrode surfaces to develop a biosensor system. In this work, we wish to present the results on electrochemical monitoring on electropolymerization of pyrrole in the presence of DNA and albumin in different electrochemical conditions. Additionally we will summarize our investigations on the miniaturization of biomolecules/PPy composites by means of scanning tunneling microscopy.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.364-364
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• 2010

Defects existing on the clean Si(5 5 12)-$2{\times}1$, composed of one-dimensional(1-D) structures such as honeycomb (H) chain, $\pi$-bonded ($\pi$) chains, dimer-adatom (D-A) row, and tetramer (T) row, have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). It is found that the defects can be classified to two categories: One is originated from phase boundaries in D-A and T rows having $2{\times}$ periodicities, by which buckling directions are reversed, and the other is caused by missing atoms on $\pi$ chains, D-A rows, and T rows. All these defects are symmetric with respect to the [6 6 $\bar{5}$] direction, which is due to one-dimensional symmetry along the [1 $\bar{1}$ 0] direction. Especially it is worth noticing that on H chains none of such defects exist, which implies that the H chain is energetically the most stable among 1-D structures existing on Si(5 5 12)-$2{\times}1$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.339-339
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• 2010

The metallic nanoparticles (Pt, Au, Ag. Cu, etc.) supported on ceria-titania mixed oxide exhibit a high catalytic activity for the water gas shift reaction ($H_2O\;+\;CO\;{\leftrightarrow}\;H_2\;+\;CO_2$) and the CO oxidation ($O_2\;+\;2CO\;{\leftrightarrow}\;2CO_2$). It has been speculated that the high catalytic activity is related to the easy exchange of the oxidation states of ceria ($Ce^{3+}$ and $Ce^{4+}$) on titania, but very little is known about the ceria titanium interaction, the growth mode of metal on ceria titania complex, and the reaction mechanism. In this work, the growth of $CeO_x$ and Au/$CeO_x$ on rutile $TiO_2$(110) have been investigated by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM), Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES), and DFT calculation. In the $CeO_x/TiO_2$(110) systems, the titania substrate imposes on the ceria nanoparticles non-typical coordination modes, favoring a $Ce^{3+}$ oxidation state and enhancing their chemical activity. The deposition of metal on a $CeO_x/TiO_2$(110) substrate generates much smaller nanoparticles with an extremely high activity. We proposed a mechanism that there is a strong coupling of the chemical properties of the admetal and the mixed-metal oxide: The adsorption and dissociation of water probably take place on the oxide, CO adsorbs on the admetal nanoparticles, and all subsequent reaction steps occur at the oxide-admetal interface.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.387-393
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• 2008

Using a first-principles total-energy method, we investigate structural and energy changes on Ag/Si(111)$\sqrt{3}{\times}\sqrt{3}$($\sqrt{3}-Ag$ hereafter) as the number of the additional Ag adatoms increases. The Ag coverage varies from 0.02 to 0.14 ML. Most Ag adatoms occupy the ST site, which is the center of small triangles of the substrate Ag layer that is composed of small and large triangles. One of the interesting adsorption features is that the adatoms immerse below the substrate layer. The total energy calculations show that the clusters become the most stable when the number of Ag atoms is three. This three-Ag cluster becomes the building block of the $\sqrt{21}{\times}\sqrt{21}$ phase that shows a large surface conductivity. The simulated STM images show that the adatoms look dark in filled-state images while bright in empty-state images. This suggests that the adatoms donate their charge to the substrate. The simulated STM images agree well with the experimental images.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.30 no.8
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• pp.1755-1759
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• 2009

Surface structure and molecular orientation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) formed by the spontaneous adsorption of tetrahydrothiophene (THT) and thiophene (TP) on Au(111) were investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and carbon K-edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy. STM imaging revealed that THT SAMs have a commensurate (3 ${\times}\;2\sqrt[]{3}$) structure containing structural defects in ordered domains, whereas TP SAMs are composed of randomly adsorbed domains and paired molecular row domains that can be described as an incommensurate packing structure. The NEXAFS spectroscopy study showed that the average tilt angle of the aliphatic THT ring and $\pi$-conjugated TP ring in the SAMs were calculated to be about $30^o\;and\;40^o$, respectively, from the surface normal. It was also observed that the $\pi$* transition peak in the NEXAFS spectrum of the TP SAMs is very weak, suggesting that a strong interaction between $\pi$-electrons and the Au surface arises during the self-assembly of TP molecules. In this study, we have clearly demonstrated that the surface structure and adsorption orientation of organic SAMs on Au(111) are strongly influenced by whether the cyclic ring is saturated or unsaturated.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2010.02a
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• pp.361-361
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• 2010

The separated quasi-one-dimensional ($7{\times}7$) and ($5{\times}5$) phases on vicinal Si(557) surfaces were successfully realized by changing the crystallographic orientation and thermal treatment conditions. A small change in the crystallographic orientation of the Si(557) surface stabilized the quasi-one-dimensional ($5{\times}5$) phase of a (111) facet on vicinal Si(557) surfaces and made it coexist with a quasi-one-dimensional ($7{\times}7$) phase after an optimal thermal treatment, whereas only the quasi-one-dimensional ($7{\times}7$) phase was stable on the Si(557) surface. Interestingly, this causes the (111) terraces with different widths (L) to prefer only one of the $5{\times}5$ (L=12) and $7{\times}7$ (L=9) phases resulting in long-range order of both phases along the step edge direction, which was observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and was supported by first principle calculations. In contrast, the quasi-one-dimensional ($5{\times}5$ and ($7{\times}7$) phases were arranged randomly across the step edge direction. The change of surface morphology of vicinal Si(557) surfaces will be discussed with STM images and theoretical calculations by changing crystallographic cutting angles and thermal treatment conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Vacuum Society
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.37-44
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• 2006

The homoepitaxy of Si(5 5 12) at $495^{\circ}C$ has been studied by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy under ultrahigh vacuum. A Si-dimer is the basic building-block and preferentially adsorbs on a unique site, that is, the Si-dimer/adatom site at the (337) and the (225) subsections within the Si(5 5 12) unit cell. The Si(5 5 12) unit cell is faceted to $3\times(337)$ subsections filled with Si-addimers and $1\times(113)$ subsection. In this step the tetramer at the other (337) section within the unit cell is transformed to a dimer/adatom site which can accept Si-dimers. Each (337) section is faceted to $1\times(112)\;and\;1\times(113)$, and then finally the unit cell of Si(5 5 12) is faceted to $3\tiems(112)\;and\;4\times(113)$ and forms the facet of effective height, $2.34{\AA}$. In this step, mutual transformation between the honeycomb chain and the dimer/adatom occurs. Finally, the valley between (112) and (113) facets is filled. If once the last step is completed, the uniform and planar Si(5 5 12) terrace is recovered. From the present study, therefore, it can be concluded that the homoepitaxy on Si(5 5 12) is periodically achieved and such growth mode is quite unique since faceting of the substrate-unit-cell plays a critical role for controlling uniformity of the overlayer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2000.02a
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• pp.156-156
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• 2000

Recently, the surface electronic states have attracted much attention since their standing wave patterns created around steps, defects, and adsorbates on noble metal surfaces such as Au(111), Ag(110), and Cu(111) were observed by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). As a typical example, a striking circular pattern of "Quantum corral" observed by Crommie, Lutz, and Eigler, covers a number of text books of quantum mechanics, demonstrating a wavy nature of electrons. After the discoveries, similar standing waves patterns have been observed on other metal and demiconductor surfaces and even on a side polane of nano-tubes. With an expectation that the surface states could be utilized as one of ideal cases for studying two dimensionakl (sD) electronic system, various properties, such as mean free path / life time of the electronic states, have been characterized based on an analysis of standing wave patterns, . for the 2D electron system, electron density is one of the most importnat parameters which determines the properties on it. One advantage of conventional 2D electron system, such as the ones realized at AlGaAs/GaAs and SiO2/Si interfaces, is their controllability of the electrondensity. It can be changed and controlled by a factor of orders through an application of voltage on the gate electrode. On the other hand, changing the leectron density of the surface-state 2D electron system is not simple. On ewqy to change the electron density of the surface-state 2D electron system is not simple. One way to change the electron density is to deposit other elements on the system. it has been known that Pd(111) surface has unoccupied surface states whose energy level is just above Fermi level. Recently, we found that by depositing Pd on Cu(111) surface, occupied surface states of Cu(111) is lifted up, crossing at Fermi level around 2ML, and approaches to the intrinsic Pd surface states with a increase in thickness. Electron density occupied in the states is thus gradually reduced by Pd deposition. Park et al. also observed a change in Fermi wave number of the surface states of Cu(111) by deposition of Xe layer on it, which suggests another possible way of changing electron density. In this talk, after a brief review of recent progress in a study of standing weaves by STM, I will discuss about how the electron density can be changed and controlled and feasibility of using the surface states for a study of 2D electron system. One of the most important advantage of the surface-state 2D electron system is that one can directly and easily access to the system with a high spatial resolution by STM/AFM.y STM/AFM.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.73-75
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• 2013

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) [1] can now not only image individual atoms but also construct atom letters using atom manipulation method [2]. Therefore, the AFM is the second generation atomic tool following the well-known scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The AFM, however, has the advantages that it can image even insulating surfaces with atomic resolution and also measure the atomic force itself between the tip-apex outermost atom and the sample surface atom. Noting these advantages, we have been developing a novel bottom-up nanostructuring system, as shown in Fig. 1, based on the AFM. It can identify chemical species of individual atoms [3] and then manipulate selected atom species to the designed site one-by-one [2] to assemble complex nanostructures consisted of many atom species at room temperature (RT). In this invited talk, we will introduce our results toward atom-by-atom assembly of composite nanomaterials based on the AFM at RT. To identify chemical species, we developed the site-specific force spectroscopy at RT by compensating the thermal drift using the atom tracking. By converting the precise site-specific frequency shift curves, we obtained short-range force curves of selected Sn and Si atoms as shown in Fig. 2(a) and 2(b) [4]. Then using the atom-by-atom force spectroscopy at RT, we succeeded in chemical identification of intermixed three atom species in Pb/Sn/Si(111)-(${\surd}3$'${\surd}3$) surface as shown in Fig. 2(c) [3]. To create composite nanostructures, we found the lateral atom interchange phenomenon at RT, which enables us to exchange embedded heterogeneous atoms [2]. By combining this phenomenon with the modified vector scan, we constructed the atom letters "Sn" consisted of substitutional Sn adatoms embedded in Ge adatoms at RT as shown in Fig. 3(a)~(f) [2]. Besides, we found another kind of atom interchange phenomenon at RT that is the vertical atom interchange phenomenon, which directly interchanges the surface selected Sn atoms with the tip apex Si atoms [5]. This method is an advanced interchangeable single atom pen at RT. Then using this method, we created the atom letters "Si" consisted of substituted Si adatoms embedded in Sn adatoms at RT as shown in Fig. 4(a)~(f) [5]. In addition to the above results, we will introduce the simultaneous evaluation of the force and current at the atomic scale using the combined AFM/STM at RT.