What are Scanning Tunneling Microscopes?
The scanning tunneling microscope is used extensively to discover the topography of tiny particles. The scanning tunneling microscope produces a three dimensional replication of the object under study by creating a beam of electrons that is scanned over the surface of the subject. The electrons bounce back and forth between the subject and the beam creating a three dimensional picture of the subject. It is important to note that a scanning tunneling microscope performs a similar function to a scanning electron microscope, but they are not the same thing. Heinrich Rohrer and Gerd Binnig invented the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 at the IBM lab in Zurich, Switzerland. They won a Nobel Prize for Physics for their invention in 1986. The scanning tunneling microscope, also known as STM, allows scientists to view and move the individual atoms of a sample. Scanning tunneling microscopes are used in research and industrial settings to study the atomic level surfaces of different materi
