REARRANGEMENT OF AU(111) SURFACE AS A RESULT OF SCANNING WITH SCANNING TUNNELING ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPES

Rearrangements of monolayer islands on the (111) surface of Au films, grown epitaxially on mica substrates, are observed as a result of cont inuous scanning with either a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) or a n atomic force microscope (AFM) under ambient conditions. With the STM , a contiguous monolayer as large as 150 X 150 nm2 can be moved from a top to the edges of underlying terrace in about an hour of continuous scanning at a rate of 2.0 mum/s. In general, islands coalesce, vacanci es fill, and terrace edges become straighter as a result of the tip sc anning over the Au surface. Crystal defects such as screw dislocations , however, are not modified appreciably with scanning, although rearra ngements are seen in regions near the defects. Similar effects are obs erved with an AFM scanning, but to a lesser extent, and only on freshl y grown films.