Dresden 2026 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 3: Scanning probe techniques: Method development I

O 3.6: Talk

Monday, March 9, 2026, 11:45–12:00, HSZ/0204

Atomic scale energy dissipation as a function of temperature measured with LFM — •Sophia Schweiß¹, Lukas Hörmann², Franz Giessibl¹, and Alfred Weymouth¹ — ¹University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany — ²University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

One method of studying atomically resolved surfaces and adsorbates is small amplitude FM-AFM. With this technique, the conservative (frequency shift, Δ f) and non-conservative (dissipated energy, E_diss) components of the tip-sample interaction are measured. Lateral force microscopy (LFM) is a related technique in which the tip oscillates laterally. Tip preparation for standard FM-AFM experiments at low temperature often includes the pickup of a CO molecule at the tip apex, which results in an inert tip with enhanced imaging properties. [1] These tip preparation techniques are also available for LFM. Over individual chemical bonds, LFM yields a measurable E_diss signal which we interpret as the CO snapping over the bond. [2]

Here, a CO-terminated tip is used to investigate the bonds of PTCDA molecules deposited on a Cu(111) surface with LFM. E_diss is measured for different temperatures in the range of 5.3 K to 6.5 K. Certain bonds exhibit a distinct T-dependence, whereas others do not.

[1] Gross et al., Science, 325, 1110 (2009)

[2] Weymouth et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 124, 196101 (2020)

Keywords: Atomic force microscopy; Lateral force microscopy; Energy dissipation