The linear scanning gives us the current profile from the A point to the B point at constant height of the tip. To run this kind of scan we need to change some values at the “scan.inp” and “options.inp” files.

Here the settings is same ([The files]), just the ICUTT parameter we have to change to value 1. Than the scan will be linear. Other values can stay same.

In the case of linear scan, the initial and final point should be changed maybe. But the XMIN XMAX or the YMIN YMAX will be same there.

Than, you can run the STM code for linear scan simulation.

As an output, we will obtain the “scan_cut_deno.out” or “scan_cut_nden.out” file, depends on the settings (the denominator means the multiple scattering is involved and the *nden.out file is obtained). The file has the following format (there is 50 rows, the scan is from the point (0.0,0.0) to (0.0,4.1742) for the distance 3A):

0.000000 0.000000 0.000000 3.000000 0.14821E-05
0.083484 0.000000 0.083484 3.000000 0.14866E-05
.
.
.
4.174200 0.000000 4.174200 3.000000 0.14821E-05

The first column gives us the length of path of the tip over the surface from the initial point, columns 2 and 3 are the x and y coordinate of the tip, 4. is the distance between tip apex and the surface and 5. column gives us the current at the given xy position.