We describe a method of preparing gold scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tips by direct current electrochemical etching in concentrated HCl and ethanol solution. Gold tips with tip apex radius lower than 30 nm can be reproducibly prepared by this method. The influence of the solution composition, etching voltage on the surface structure, and sharpness has been investigated. These tips can be efficiently used for STM imaging, tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, and light emission investigations on the same sample.
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Ren et al. (2004) studied this question.
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