Localized distributions of quasi-two-dimensional electronic states near defects artificially created at graphite surfaces in magnetic fields

Abstract

We measured the local density of states of a quasi two-dimensional electron system (2DES) near defects, artificially created by Ar-ion sputtering, on surfaces of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) with scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) in high magnetic fields. At valley energies of the Landau level spectrum, we found two typical localized distributions of the 2DES depending on the defects. These are new types of distributions which are not observed in the previous STS work at the HOPG surface near a point defect. With increasing energy, we observed gradual transformation from the localized distributions to the extended ones as expected for the integer quantum Hall state. We show that the defect potential depth is responsible for the two localized distributions from comparison with theoretical calculations. © 2009 The American Physical Society.