The authors have modified a precision indentation device to allow STM rastering of a tip across a surface, while simultaneously monitoring mechanical contact. Images obtained from this apparatus on a HOPG sample exhibit atomic scale resolution with contact areas much larger than a single atom. They provide a model for this process as shear between atomic planes. The model explains a variety of curious, and otherwise unrelated phenomena occurring during STM imaging of these materials.
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Todd et al. (1989) studied this question.
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