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Scanning tunneling microscopy has proven to be a very powerful method for real space imaging of molecules on surfaces. Here we demonstrate how the morphological and chemical structure of the tunneling tip alters the apparent topography of STM images. When imaged with conventional W tips, isolated aluminum hydride (alane) oligomers appear as 2.8 A protrusions on Al(111). When imaged with alane-terminated tips, STM image contrast is both enhanced and inverted, with alane oligomers appearing as depressions. We attribute this image reversal to the electronic levels of tip-adsorbed alanes, whose distance from the surface Fermi levels reduces the coherence in the tunneling junction. The absence of a bias dependence in these images suggests predominant tunneling through tip-alane LUMO states.

Complementary scanning tunneling microscopy and surface infrared measurements show that H reacts strongly with Al(111), producing a variety of new alane (aluminum hydride) surface species. Alane oligomers, ranging in size from the monomer to 30-mers, form through a sequence of surface etching and condensation reactions. Atomic hydrogen initiates production by extracting aluminum atoms from the surface lattice to create mobile monohydride monomers (ad-Al H), which predominate in the low-coverage regime. At higher hydrogen coverages, multihydride oligomers form in coexistence with the ad-Al H. These alane oligomers are more thermally stable, remaining on the surface at room temperature, where they are directly imaged. The mass transfer of aluminum to surface alanes is discussed in relationship to alane stoichiometry.