J. Kerssemakers et Jtm. Dehosson, ATOMIC-FORCE MICROSCOPY IMAGING OF TRANSITION-METAL LAYERED COMPOUNDS- A 2-DIMENSIONAL STICK-SLIP SYSTEM, Applied physics letters, 67(3), 1995, pp. 347-349
Various layered transition metal dichalcogenides were scanned with an
optical-lever atomic force microscope (AFM). The microscopic images in
dicate the occurrence of strong lateral stick-slip effects. In this le
tter, two models are presented to describe the observations due to sti
ck-slip, i.e., either as a static or as a dynamic phenomenon. Although
both models describe correctly the observed shapes of the unit cell,
details in the observed and simulated images point at dynamic nonequil
ibrium effects. This exact shape of the unit cell depends on cantileve
r stiffness, scan direction, and detector direction. (C) 1995 American
Institute of Physics.