Nanostructured gold surfaces fabricated with the scanning tunnelling microscope

Regular nanoscale finger-like stripes have been produced on the Au(111) surface using a scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) tip with a high local electric field. The fingers are one atomic layer high, 4-8 nm wide and more than 200 nm long. The gold fingers are found to point in one of the three equivalent (110) directions, and the two parallel side edges of the fingers consist of close-packed atoms. The number, site and direction of the nanoscale finger-like stripes can be controlled by varying the parameters used in STM scans. The nanoscale finger-like stripes are potentially useful as a promising nanostructured template.