Electrochemical preparation of tungsten tips for a scanning tunneling microscope

We present experimental results obtained during the electrochemical preparation of tungsten tips for a scanning tunneling microscope. Experiments were done with direct current and two kinds of electrolytes widely reported in the literature: KOH and NaOH. We report the effects of the applied voltage, time of etching, tip length, electrolyte concentration, wire diameter, and immersed portion as relevant parameters in the process. From the images obtained by a metallurgical microscope and a scanning electron microscope as well as from Auger and electron diffraction x-ray analysis the best conditions for W tip preparation were obtained. We found that KOH is better than NaOH as an electrolyte to prepare tips for scanning tunneling microscopy and that tip quality increases as the wire diameter and the immersed portion increases.