25 Years of the Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

The unique and powerful advantage offered by STM and all STM derived techniques is the ability to perform direct studies of a great number of different phenomena. It is a particularly powerful technique for revealing the local aspects of the atomic and electronic surface structures and dynamics. Studies of key energetic parameters, like structural, electronic, thermal, mechanical, and all other properties of materials can be done with extremely high spatial resolution, down to the atomic scale. Many other techniques such as e.g. electron diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, and X-ray diffraction provide only indirect information about sample structures, while offering to probe certain features at the atomic scale, inevitably average these properties over substantially larger areas.

At present, the microscopes founded on the STM idea are the most ubiquitous tools in surface science. They work from the micrometer down to the sub-nanometer scale. The studied phenomena include surface topography, adsorption, surface diffusion, surface potential and surface electric field, the strength of individual chemical bonds, electronic and vibrational properties, nanotribology: friction, lubrication, wear and adhesion, dielectric and magnetic properties. The range of phenomena studied by SPM techniques is continuing to grow. What is more, the use of these techniques in the molecular manipulation and rapidly growing nanotechnology fields is also increasing.