Microscopy, quantum-style: Atomic stacks imaged in real space
Wednesday, August 31, 2011 - 09:00
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- Since the first optical microscopes appeared in the late 1600s an exact date and original inventor elude precise identification microscopy has evolved dramatically. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and (although not generally recognized as an established method) point contact microscopy (PCM) allow scientists to view objects inaccessible to optical microscopes, with images of atoms now commonplace. Nevertheless, even this inexorable march towards ever-smaller scales has encountered limitations. (For example, STM does not provide information on local chemistry, while PCM cannot adequately image individual atoms due to it not having a single-atom contact.)
