Surface-Mediated Atomic Geometry and Decoupled States in Short Chains on a Si(553)−Au Surface - STM images

File 'Figure1-jal2.pdf'': STM image of the Si(553)−Au surface featuring an isolated Si atom and superimposed structural model. (a) 2.9 × 2.3 nm topographic image (Ubias = −1 V and I = 50 pA) with the structural model. Yellow spheres represent Au atoms; brown spheres represent step-edge Si atoms; and light brown spheres represent other Si atoms. A black rectangle outlines the single Si atom and its nearest neighbors within the same terrace. Gray dashed lines indicate the positions where I(V) measurements were taken at equidistances of 0.10 nm. (b) Set of normalized dI/dV spectra measured along the terrace. (c) Normalized dI/dV spectra measured along the Si edge atoms. The red dashed line highlights data recorded at the site of the single Si atom. The first bottom lines in panels b and c were recorded at the left edge of panel a. File 'Figure3-jal2.pdf'': (a) Topographic STM image of the Si(553)−Au surface is presented with a superimposed structural model. The imaging conditions are a bias voltage of 0.75 V, a tunneling current of 50 pA, and a temperature of 77.6 K. Two short chains located at the terrace edge are marked with an arrow labeled L. The continuous Si chain at the bottom, which exhibits a periodicity of 3x, serves as a reference for aligning the theoretical structural model with the experimental data. (b) Normalized conductance map along the step edge of the short chains is shown. The colormap ranges from 0.5 units (dark blue) to 5.5 units (brown), indicating varying conductance levels. Vertical lines labeled A to E denote the positions of selected (dI/dV)/(I/V) curves, which are displayed in panel c.