First-Ever Images of an Electron In Orbit - Page 3

On August 30 2011 03:38 GreEny K wrote:
I guess it's a huge leap... Still looks like fuzz balls to me though. Guess you need an appreciation for for science and all that.

An atomic force microscope (AFM) isn't anything like an optical microscope that you simply look through to make small things appear bigger. Instead, it's more like a very very very very very small bit of charcoal that you can rub on tracing paper placed over a surface to view carved patterns that you wouldn't otherwise be able to see. The tip of an AFM (also called a probe) is so small that you need an electron microscope to even see it:



To operate, the tip of the AFM moves across a surface, and when it encounters an atom or a molecule, the tip bumps up a little bit as it passes over. This jiggles a laser beam, which records precisely how much the tip was deflected. By making a bunch of passes, the AFM can gradually build up a sort of topographic map of a surface. It's also possible to place a single atom on the very tip of the AFM's probe, and by watching how that atom interacts with the atoms that it passes over, you can tell what's underneath.

On August 30 2011 03:46 Shockk wrote:
This is truly impressive, especially the "microscope" technology involved. Let me quote that part of the article:



Just imagine the level of precision neccessary to develop, manufacture, operate and record all of that. And think about the possibilites we could have if such machines couldn't just be used to scan, but instead to modify or create things on that scale.