Dynamic scanning force microscopy at low temperatures on a noble-gas crystal: Atomic resolution on the xenon(111) surface

The (111) surface of a xenon thin film as well as of the graphite substrate have been studied on the atomic-scale using dynamic scanning force microscopy. The extremely stable conditions required for the successful imaging of the insulating and weakly bound noble-gas crystal were realised by operating the microscope at low temperatures in ultrahigh vacuum. This achievement enables detailed investigations of a class of materials which has up to now been inaccessible to microscopical methods providing atomic resolution and gives a clear proof for the possibility to gain atomic resolution images in dynamic scanning force microscopy on weakly interacting, vulnerable surfaces.