Hydrogen-related contrast in atomic force microscopy

We study the effect of hydrogen adsorption on gadolinium islands epitaxially grown on W(110) utilizing atomic force microscopy operated in the non-contact regime. In constant force images, gadolinium islands exhibit two height levels, corresponding to hydrogen covered and clean gadolinium areas, respectively. The experimentally measured height differences are strongly bias dependent, showing that the contrast pattern is dominated by electrostatic tip-sample forces. We interpret our experimental findings in terms of a local reduction of the work function and the presence of localized charges on hydrogen covered areas. Both effects lead to a variation of the contact potential difference between tip and surface areas, which are clean or hydrogen covered gadolinium. After clarifying the electrostatic contrast formation, we can unambiguously identify regions of clean gadolinium on the islands. These results are important for further magnetic exchange force microscopy based studies, because hydrogen also alters the magnetic properties locally.