Abstract
The scanning tunneling microscope is a new tool for determining surface topography on a sub-atomic scale. It uses the measurement of the quantum mechanical tunneling current from a sharp tip to a sample through a vacuum gap in order to plot a topographic map of the surface with vertical resolution as high as 0.1Å and horizontal resolution as high as 2Å. We will discuss the technique and its instrumentation as developed by Binnig et al.1–5 at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory. We will also discuss the instrument which is presently operating at ~2Å vertical resolution in our laboratory. The technique has been shown to apply to samples consisting of metals, semiconductors, and adsorbates on metals. Examples of high resolution surface profiles from published results of the Zurich group, including gold, silicon, and oxygen on nickel, will be shown. Applications to rougher surfaces in poor vacuum, such as gold sputtered on silicon and silver evaporated on mica, will also be demonstrated.
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References
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© 1986 Plenum Press, New York
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Chiang, S., Wilson, R.J. (1986). Scanning Tunneling Microscopy. In: Feder, R., McGowan, J.W., Shinozaki, D.M. (eds) Examining the Submicron World. NATO ASI Series, vol 137. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-2209-2_1
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