Investigation of atomic species in Pt-induced nanowires on Ge(001) surface by combined atomic force and scanning tunneling microscopy

We have studied identification of atomic species in Pt-induced nanowires self-assembled on the Ge(001) surface by combining scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). A small number of Sn atoms substituted in the top atomic chains were utilized as references to identify the target atomic species. Force spectroscopy data taken above single atoms on the Sn-substituted nanowires showed that the ratio between the maximum attractive forces above the Sn and the pristine chain atoms exhibited a constant value of 0.86. The obtained ratio was identical to that between Sn and Ge atoms, strongly suggestive that the top ridge of the Pt-induced nanowire was composed of Ge dimers. Our findings also demonstrate that AFM chemical identification method can be used to identify the unknown atomic species on surfaces, regardless of the homogeneity in the atomic composition, which has not been addressed so far.