STICK-SLIP MOVEMENT OF A SCANNED TIP ON A GRAPHITE SURFACE IN SCANNING FORCE MICROSCOPY

An experimental and theoretical study on the nature of the movement of a scanned tip on a graphite surface is presented. A comparison betwee n theory and experiment demonstrates that the lateral forces occurring during scanning are strongly affected by the so-called ''stick-slip'' movement of the tip. The experimentally observed force maps are ident ified to represent ''hollow-site resolution'' instead of ''atomic reso lution''.