Surface Dynamics

The dynamic behavior of atoms, molecules and clusters on surfaces plays a vital role in various surface and interface processes. For example, the growth of crystals and thin films, self-assembly processes, and catalytic reactions all require mass transport. For the investigation of such processes we combine a high-speed STM setup with a variable-temperature STM. This combination allows us monitoring the dynamics of single atoms and molecules over a much broader time window than before, a prerequisite for the extraction of precise kinetic parameters.

Recent publications:

• "Diffusion of O Atoms on a CO-Covered Ru(0001) Surface─A Combined High-Speed Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Density Functional Theory Study at an Enhanced CO Coverage",
  H. Illner, S. Sakong, A.-K. Henß, A. Groß and J. Wintterlin, J. Phys. Chem. C 2023, 127, 7197–7210.
• "A multiscale wavelet algorithm for atom tracking in STM movies",
  P.K. Messer, A.-K. Henß, D.C. Lamb and J. Wintterlin, New J. Phys. 2022, 24, 033016.
• “Density fluctuations as door-opener for diffusion on crowded surfaces”,
  A.-K. Henß, S. Sakong, P.K. Messer, J. Wiechers, R. Schuster, D.C. Lamb, A. Groß and J. Wintterlin, Science 2019, 363, 715.