August 25, 2004
Standing waves of electrons.
The Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) is capable of resolving atomic scale features (like the carbon atoms in a graphitic plane.)
Needless to say, the STM is an important tool for investigating materials. Alloys Crystal defects Or just making loads of cool images (from the artist's blue period), herding electrons and the ever popular graffiti. Inspired? Build your own!
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Excellent.
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One of these days I am going to get that IBM pic on a t-shirt. Since we are on the topic of swass microscopy tools, I would like to point out that they (i.e. them) are making some great headway on Atom Probes. Imago makes a Local Electron Atom Probe that (they say) runs full 3d imaging of individual atoms on a grander scale than something like STM. Plus, it too results in pretty pictures... albeit in a more pointalistic fashion.