金是活性低的貴金屬，然而在大氣下觀察在金球上的金(111)表面，發現深色斑點在金表面形成。深色斑點三種可能的成因: 1.真實單原子層凹陷 2.金的氧化物 3.污染物。為了確認深色斑點是上述何者，用STM與AFM做了一系列的實驗。雖然這些實驗的結果仍無法確實斷定深色斑點的本質與成因，但可給出有助於判斷的實驗結果。根據目前的結果雖無法排除深色斑點為真實凹陷，但較傾向以金的氧化物解釋。

Although gold is one of the noble metal with lowest reactivity, dark pits were observed to form on the Au(111) surface in ambient by SPM. Three hypotheses of dark pits formation was provided: 1. single atomic depth vacancy. 2. gold oxides. 3. contaminant-induced product. In order to verify which hypothesis is correct, series of STM and AFM experiments were performed. Though the nature and the formation mechanism of dark pits are still unclear, useful results were provided. Base on our results the hypothesis of gold oxides is most probable.

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