Scanning Tunneling Microscope/Microscopy (STM)

by Dr. Daisuke Fujita

Scanning tunneling microscope/microscopy (STM) is an instrument/method able to analyze conductive samples by scanning voltage-biased conducting sharp tips over the surfaces at a proximity distance less than approximately 1 nm, where the tunneling current flowing between tip and sample is monitored and used to control of the tip-sample separation. Scanning tunneling microscope is an instrument for this analytical method.

NOTE 1 The scanning tunneling microscopy was invented by Gerd K. Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer, scientists at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory in Switzerland, in 1982. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their work in scanning tunneling microscopy in 1986.

NOTE 2 There are two major operation modes of STM imaging, such as constant current mode and constant height mode.

NOTE 3 There are several spectroscopic techniques using STM, which are called "tunneling spectroscopy (TS)", from which local chemical and/or electronic characteristics of sample surfaces are obtainabel.

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References
[1] G. Binnig and H. Rohrer, "Scanning tunneling microscopy", Helv. Phys. Acta 55, 726-735 (1982)
[2] G. Binnig, H. Rohrer, Ch. Gerber and E. Weible, "7x7 reconstruction on Si(111) resolved in real space", Phys. Rev. Lett. 50, 120-123 (1983)