《In touch with atoms》.pdf

In touch with atoms G. Binnig ¨ IBM Research Division, Zurich Research Laboratory, Saumerstrasse 4, ¨ 8803 Ruschilkon, Switzerland H. Rohrer 8805 Richterswil, Switzerland Scanning tunneling microscopy appeared as a new method to deal with atoms, molecules, and nanometer-scale structures. It was the first of a growing family of local probes for imaging and measuring, which can serve at the same time as tools. Local probe methods have changed the way we perceive, think about, and treat atomic structures, and have brought about a new appreciation of mechanics. They play a central role for science and technology on the nanometer scale and will allow us to build systems of the same complexity as used by nature, which has built life on nanofunctionality. [S0034-6861(99)04402-5] I. BACK TO THE FUTURE OF MECHANIICS solution. This was the beginning of a new approach to the nanometer scale, the local-probe methods. Quantum mechanics has dramatically changed our Local probes are small-sized objects, usually the very perception of atoms, molecules, and condensed matter end of a sharp tip, whose interactions with a sample or a and established the central role of electronic states for field can be sensed at selected positions. Proximity to or electronic, chemical, and mechanical properties. Elec- contact with the sample is required for good resolution. tronics, understood broadly as the motion of electrons This is in principle an old concept, the medical doctor’s and the deformatio