Scanning tunnelling microscope and atomic force microscope
Microscopio de efecto túnel y de fuerza atómica
- Date
- 1981 · confidence high
- Place
- IBM Research, Rüschlikon, Zurich, Switzerland
- Credited to
- Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer (STM, 1981; Nobel Prize 1986); Binnig, Quate and Gerber (AFM, 1986)
- People
- 👤 Calvin Quate1923–2019👤 Gerd Binnig1947–👤 Heinrich Rohrer1933–2013
- Field
- Communication
What it is
Instruments that scan a surface with an atomic-scale tip and detect the tunnelling current or force, producing images atom by atom and allowing atoms to be moved. They made the atomic scale visible and manipulable.
What it led to
- Nanotechnology as a field and the manipulation of individual atoms
- Nanometre-scale quality control of chips and hard disks
- The structural biology of individual molecules
Built on
Made possible
- Graphene2004
- nanotechnology
- scanning probe lithography