Submolecular-resolution non-invasive imaging of interfacial water with atomic force microscopy

• DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.1703.04400
• Publication Date: 2017-01-01
• Authors: Jinbo Peng; Jing Guo; Prokop Hapala; Duanyun Cao; Runze Ma; Bowei Cheng; Limei Xu; Martin Ondráček; Pavel Jelı́nek; Enge Wang; Ying Jiang
• Keywords: Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph); Physics - Chemical Physics; FOS: Physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; 0104 chemical sciences

Scanning probe microscopy (SPM) has been extensively applied to interfacial water in many interdisciplinary fields but the disturbance of probes on hydrogen-bonding structure remained an intractable problem. Here we report submolecular-resolution imaging clusters a NaCl(001) surface within nearly non-invasive region by qPlus-based noncontact atomic force microscopy. Comparison with theoretical simulations reveals that key lies probing weak high-order electrostatic between quadrupole-like CO-terminated tip and polar molecules at large tip-water distances. This interaction allows structural determination weakly bonded even their metastable states without inducing any disturbance. work may open up new possibility studying intrinsic electrostatics ice or bulk insulating surfaces, ion hydration biological precision.