title: Note: Production of sharp gold tips with high surface quality.
abstract: We present a simple method to produce sharp gold tips with excellent surface quality based on electrochemical etching with potassium chloride. Radii of curvature lie in the range of 20-40 nm and the surface roughness is measured to less than 0.8 nm. The tips are well suited for field emission, field ion microscopy, and likely for tip-enhanced Raman scattering as well as tip-enhanced near-field imaging.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik, Garching, Germany.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eisele
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krüger
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schenk
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ziegler
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hommelhoff
mesh_terms: D004563:Electrochemistry / Q000379:methods*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry*; D011189:Potassium Chloride / Q000737:chemistry; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D011189:Potassium Chloride; D006046:Gold