CALCULATION OF STM PROFILES FOR NANOMETROLOGY

We present an approach to scanning tunneling microscopy topographic im aging which pays special attention to the influence of the geometrical shape of the tip and sample. Both electrodes are described by spatial ly restricted two-dimensional square-well potentials of finite height. Their eigenstates are calculated numerically and their geometry can b e chosen arbitrarily. The tunneling current is calculated using the tr ansfer Hamiltonian formalism. We demonstrate the abilities of our appr oach with the example of constant-current imaging of an idealized nano meter-trench surface-profile structure by different tips.