Scanning Tunnelling Microscope
STM
Scanning probe microscopy: Full speed ahead.
The scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) can image surfaces with atomic resolution but some processes involving single atoms happen too fast to be recorded by this instrument. Now scientists at IBM's Almaden Research Center in the United States and the EPFL (LNS - Laboratory of Nanostructures at Surfaces) have improved the temporal resolution of the STM by a factor of one million while retaining its ability to image individual atoms and molecules.
Nature Nanotechnology (4 November 2010) doi:10.1038/nnano.2010.226 Research Highlights