Affiliation:
1. Institute of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Abstract
We report direct force measurements of the formation of a chemical bond. The experiments were performed using a low-temperature atomic force microscope, a silicon tip, and a silicon (111) 7×7 surface. The measured site-dependent attractive short-range force, which attains a maximum value of 2.1 nanonewtons, is in good agreement with first-principles calculations of an incipient covalent bond in an analogous model system. The resolution was sufficient to distinguish differences in the interaction potential between inequivalent adatoms, demonstrating the ability of atomic force microscopy to provide quantitative, atomic-scale information on surface chemical reactivity.
Publisher
American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)
Cited by
395 articles.
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