The atomic edge, excellent conductivity, stable chemical and mechanical properties make graphene a good candidate for the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip. Here, a one-step growth method is used to fabricate graphene STM tips. The graphene was directly grown on a sharp tungsten tip vertically by using microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition method without any catalyst. The high resolution TEM image demonstrated that inert W₂C layer was formed at the surface of tungsten during growth which can protect the oxidation of tungsten tip and promote the electric conductivity of graphene STM tip of 4000 times than the oxidative tungsten tip. The in situ TEM field evaporation experiments revealed that the graphene has a good stability under high electric field of 24.7 V/nm. Using the graphene STM tip, atomic resolution images of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite and tungsten disulfide were obtained. Our experiment results demonstrated the graphene STM tip was available to get atomic resolution image for at least one week. It is a promising approach to fabricate STM tips for high resolution imaging in a fast and economical way.

中文翻译：

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微波等离子体增强化学气相沉积法制备的二维结构石墨烯STM针尖

原子边缘，出色的电导率，稳定的化学和机械性能使石墨烯成为扫描隧道显微镜（STM）尖端的良好候选者。在此，采用一步生长法来制造石墨烯STM尖端。通过使用微波等离子体增强化学气相沉积法在没有任何催化剂的情况下，将石墨烯直接在尖锐的钨尖端上垂直生长。高分辨率TEM图像显示惰性W ₂C层在生长过程中在钨的表面形成，可以保护钨尖端的氧化，并促进石墨烯STM尖端的电导率是氧化钨尖端的4000倍。原位TEM现场蒸发实验表明，石墨烯在24.7 V / nm的高电场下具有良好的稳定性。使用石墨烯STM尖端，获得了高度取向的热解石墨和二硫化钨的原子分辨率图像。我们的实验结果表明，石墨烯STM吸头可用于获得至少一周的原子分辨率图像。这是一种以快速且经济的方式制造用于高分辨率成像的STM针尖的有前途的方法。