jan 1, 1981 - Scanning Tunnelling Microscope

Description:

Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer made the decision to create their own apparatus, something novel that would have the ability to view and control atoms at the nanoscale. To achieve this, they started experimenting with tunnelling, a quantum phenomenon in which atoms depart a solid's surface to create a sort of cloud that hovers above the surface; when another surface approaches, its atomic cloud overlaps with the first, resulting in an atomic exchange.

Scientists were able to visualise the world down to its atoms and molecules because to their technology. The STM, which received the Physics Nobel Prize in 1986, is widely considered as the device that gave rise to nanotechnology and to numerous investigations in a variety of domains, including electrochemistry, semiconductor research, and molecular biology.

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