Scanning tunneling microscopy of the atomically smooth (001) surface of vanadium pentoxide V2O5 crystals

Abstract

The (001) cleavage surface of vanadium pentoxide (V₂O₅) crystal has been studied by scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STM). It is shown that the surface is not reconstructed; the STM image allows geometric lattice parameters to be determined with high accuracy. The nanostructure formed on the (001) cleavage surface of crystal consists of atomically smooth steps with a height multiple of unit-cell parameter с = 4.37 Å. The V₂O₅ crystal cleavages can be used as references in calibration of a scanning tunneling microscope under atmospheric conditions both along the (х, y) surface and normally to the sample surface (along the z axis). It is found that the terrace surface is not perfectly atomically smooth; its roughness is estimated to be ~0.5 Å. This circumstance may introduce an additional error into the microscope calibration along the z coordinate.