Preparation of reliable probes for electrochemical tunneling spectroscopy.

We present a new procedure to prepare Pt/Ir probes for electrochemical scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy applications. We detail the experimental setup and the improvements over previous methods. The probes have been used successfully for measurements of tunneling spectroscopy under electrochemical control, which requires scanning the potential of the tip at high velocity. Copyright 2004 American Chemical Society