Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/01/11

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Subject: [Leica] [Off Topic] Atomic Force Microscopy...
From: Berg Na <bergna@yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999 22:05:18 -0800 (PST)

Alexey Merz alexey@webcom.com wrote:

<< ... AFM's are NOT "basically high resolution microscopes" as they
can probe *many* properties of an object, including electical and
mechanical properties. What's more, AFMs can be used (as I already
pointed out) to manipulate, move, and place on substrates single
molecules or even single atoms. They are not simply passive viewing
devices, as you (parhaps not intentionally) imply. >>

Not true. In addition to normal surface topography imaging, AFM may
also be used to measure interatomic or intermolecular forces but it
CANNOT be used to deposit materials or pattern surfaces on the atomic
scale as you described. Such tasks, as demonstrated by IBM, require a
scanning tunneling microscope (STM). I also want to point out that AFM
may yield structural information on a sample but provides no clues
about its electrical properties.

Berg

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