Effects of interfacial tension in tunneling microscopy .1. Theory

It is shown that variations in interfacial tension induced by the charged tunneling tip may influence the lateral stability of imaged objects during scanning tunneling microscopy experiments on both solid and liquid substrates. The induced interfacial tension gradient may also play a dominating role in the mechanical stability of liquid substrates used for tunneling microscopy. The electrostatic model developed in this work parallels the model of a polarized electrochemical interface. The interfacial tension effect is compared with another electrostatic effect: the interaction between the electric field and dipolar or charged adsorbates.