Lateral manipulation of atomic size defects on the CaF₂(111) surface

Abstract

Atomic scale manipulation on insulating surfaces is one of the great challenges of non-contact atomic force microscopy. Here we demonstrate lateral manipulation of defects occupying single ionic sites on a calcium fluoride (111)-surface. Defects stem from the interaction of the residual gas with the surface. The process of surface degradation is briefly discussed. Manipulation is performed over a wide range of path lengths ranging from tens of nanometres down to a few lattice constants. We introduce a simple manipulation protocol based on line-by-line scanning of a surface region containing defects to be manipulated, and record tip-surface distance and cantilever resonance frequency detuning as a function of the manipulation pathway in real time. We suggest a hopping model to describe manipulation where the tip-defect interaction is governed by repulsive forces.