Preparation of Fe STM tips for room-temperature spin-polarized tunneling spectroscopy

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for preparing iron STM tips using Ar ion etching, enabling stable spin-polarized tunneling spectroscopy at room temperature, demonstrated through magnetization mapping of Co islands.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel recipe for fabricating stable Fe tips suitable for room-temperature spin-polarized STM, improving experimental reliability.

Findings

Successful preparation of Fe tips for spin-polarized STM

Stable measurements of magnetization mapping at room temperature

Demonstration on Co islands on Cu(111)

Abstract

We present a recipe based on field-directed Ar ion etching of iron tips that results in probes suitable for stable spin-polarized scanning tunneling spectroscopy. This is illustrated by a measurement of the spectroscopic mapping of the magnetization of Co islands on Cu(111).