File:Atomic_resolution_Au100.JPG · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
scanning tunneling microscope
Sign in to saveAlso known as STM, Electron Scanning Tunnel Microscope
type of electron microscope used for looking at atoms
In the Vinony graph
Within Vinony's link graph, scanning tunneling microscope is referenced by 540 other articles, and connects out to IBM, quantum tunneling and atomic force microscopy.
It sits within the topics 1981 introductions, 20th-century inventions and German inventions.
Its subject is documented across 43 Wikipedia language editions.
Wikidata facts
- Image
- ESR-STM at QNS in Ewha - front view.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- short name
- STM
- Commons category
- Scanning tunneling microscope
- Commons gallery
- Scanning tunneling microscope
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~39 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Image of reconstruction on a clean (100) surface of gold
A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is a type of scanning probe microscope used for imaging surfaces at the atomic level. Its development in 1981 earned its inventors, Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, then at IBM Zürich, the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986. STM senses the surface by using an extremely sharp conducting tip that can distinguish features smaller than 0.1 nm with a 0.01 nm (10 pm) depth resolution. This means that individual atoms can routinely be imaged and manipulated. Most scanning tunneling microscopes are built for use in ultra-high vacuum at temperatures approaching absolute zero, but variants exist for studies in air, water and other environments, and for temperatures over 1000 °C.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “scanning tunneling microscope” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.