15 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: STM image (Pt(110)−(1×2) surface)
As someone who has done a fair bit of SEM, TEM, and AFM, I’d love to play with an STM.
Comment by Comprehensive_Yak_72 at 17/08/2023 at 23:42 UTC
8 upvotes, 4 direct replies
As someone who got to play with an STM for a whole year (master thesis), they’re as exactly as cool as you’re anticipating (when they aren’t breaking)
Comment by [deleted] at 17/08/2023 at 23:47 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
STM is very cool, I've played a bit with it in my last internship this year, with my tutor
Now not every lab has a high-resolution STM and STM is not trivial at all to use, you have to dissipate all the vibrations, and the noise, including electrical noise. So basically the whole chamber is mounted on pneumatic dampers, you have also to suspend the area where the sample is located
Then to have a good image, you have to have a good tip because what you see is a convolution between the tip and the sample (theoretically speaking), and most importantly a sample which is sufficiently conductive (which means that for non conductive materials you have to dope them)
AFM is quite similar albeit different technique
SEM and TEM are really good too, I have a preference for TEM, it's a much more complete technique, but SEM is fascinating as well