Field ion microscope
Microscopio de iones en campo
- Date
- 1951 · confidence high
- Place
- University Park, Pennsylvania, United States
- Credited to
- Erwin Wilhelm Müller
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Microscope invented by Erwin Müller that visualizes the arrangement of individual atoms on a metal tip's surface using gas ionization in an intense electric field.
What it led to
- First direct observation of individual atoms (1955, with Kanwar Bahadur)
- Later development of the atom probe
- Advances in surface science and metallurgy
- Conceptual precursor to the scanning tunneling microscope