STM Procedure Manual

With STM, researchers can literally "see" the atoms. An atomically sharp tip is brought within twenty angstroms of the surface, then a voltage is applied between the tip and the surface, causing an electric current to flow. The current is a realization of a quantum mechanical phenomena called tunneling. The atomic resolution is the results of the the atomically sharp tip and the exponential dependence of tunneling current on tip-surface distance and. The data collected is actually a map of electron density of the surface, which can often be interpreted as the actual topography of the surface. STM was invented in the early 1980's by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer of IBM Zurich Laboratory, with a Nobel Prize in Physics awarded for their invention in 1986. Since then, STM and its related techniques have revolutionized many fields of research, allowing researchers to see and understand nature from the atomic level.