The scanning tunnelling microscope

The scanning tunnelling microscope (developed by IBM laboratories in Zurich in 1981), uses a very sharp tip consisting of only a few atoms which hovers over the surface of a sample at a distance of one nanometre. This technique, which is available at SOLEIL’s surfaces laboratory, is a tool that complements synchrotron techniques by facilitating the study of matter at the atomic level.

Visuals copyrights : Synchrotron SOLEIL, Institut des Nanosciences de Paris (INSP), European Commission, IBM Research, Fotolia.

Nanotechnology - Feel free to watch our other videos (in French) on this topic:

1/ What is a nanometre?

2/ The nanoworld

3/ Singular properties of nanoparticles

4/ Giant magnetoresistance (GMR)

5/ The scanning tunnelling microscope

6/ The nanoworld at SOLEIL

7/ SAMBA and soft chemistry

8/ SWING and zeolites

9/ TEMPO and molecular grafting 

10/ CASSIOPEE and tunnel junctions