Towards Surface Potential Mapping on Atomic Length Scale
The surface diffusion potential landscape plays an essential role in a number of physical and chemical processes such as self-assembly and catalysis. Diffusion energy barriers can be calculated theoretically for simple systems, but there is currently no experimental technique to systematically measure them on the relevant atomic length scale. Here, we introduce an atomic force microscopy based method to map the surface diffusion potential on an atomic length scale. We show that the atomic force microscope damping signal at constant frequency-shift can be linked to non-conservative processes associated with the lowering of energy barriers and compared with calculated single-atom diffusion energy barriers.