Abstract
The measurement of the microtopography of surfaces is a difficult task. In the recent times, several kinds of Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM) have appeared, where a probe tip is scanned at a very close distance from the sample surface (0.1 to 10 nm). The most old and popular of these instruments is the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) invented by Binnig and Rohrer1. The tip-to-sample distance, s, is so small (0.5 nm) that a tunneling current flows through the vacuum between the two electrodes. Topographical images are obtained by keeping constant the distance s when scanning the probe tip over the sample. These SPM microscopes have several important properties: (i) they give three-dimensional images in real space, (ii) they give horizontal and vertical atomic resolution, (iii) since there is no mechanical contact between tip and surface and since the electron energy lies in the meV to low eV values, the method is non destructive, (iv) they are able to operate at several ambiances like air at atmospheric pressure, liquids, high pressure gases…
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Gómez-Rodríguez, J.M., Asenjo, A., Baró, A.M. (1993). Study of Self-Affine Fractal Surfaces with STM. In: Garcia-Ruiz, J.M., Louis, E., Meakin, P., Sander, L.M. (eds) Growth Patterns in Physical Sciences and Biology. NATO ASI Series, vol 304. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-2852-4_5
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