Tunneling spectroscopy of ultrathin insulating films: CuN on Cu(100)

C. D. Ruggiero, T. Choi, J. A. Gupta

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54 Scopus citations

Abstract

Scanning tunneling microscopy is used to characterize the electronic structure of 1 ML films of CuN on Cu(100). We find that CuN acts as an insulator with a band gap that exceeds 4 eV. Measurements of the tunneling barrier height and image potential states indicate that the CuN work function is ∼0.9 eV larger than bare Cu. This suggests a significant surface dipole, consistent with charge transfer predicted by theory. Our results indicate that CuN films are useful for controlling the electronic coupling between adsorbates and surface electron density on the nanometer scale.

Original languageEnglish
Article number253106
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume91
Issue number25
DOIs
StatePublished - 2007

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We thank A.J. Heinrich and C.F. Hirjibehedin for helpful discussions, and are grateful for the support from the NSF CAREER Award No. DMR-0645451.

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