Engineering Physics

(PHY1701)

Dr. B. Ajitha
Assistant Professor
Division of Physics
VIT University
Chennai, India
[email protected]
Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

 History:
 A scanning tunneling microscope (STM) is an
instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level.
 STM -Invented by Binnig and Rohrer at IBM in 1981
(Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986).

 Traditional microscopy or imaging techniques employ lenses to focus light, this

results in diffraction.
 Due to diffraction effect, it is not possible to get a resolution better than half-
wavelength of the radiation used.
 STM is an instrument which does not use radiations to image the objects and
study of molecule of few Angstrom size with high resolution became possible.
 It is An electron microscope that uses a single atom tip to attain atomic
resolution.
 It gives the topographic (real space) and spectroscopic (electronic structure,
density of states) images.

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

Instrumentation

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

Working Principle
 Scanning Tunneling Microscope works on the basis of tunneling effect.
 Tunneling effect: It is a phenomenon where a particle tunnels through a
barrier that it classically could not support.
 The electrons can tunnel from tip to
the sample (or vice versa) through a
nano gap maintained between them.
 The tunneling current is measured
and converted to surface profile of
the sample using image processing
technique.
 As shown in the magnified image of
the tip, the sharpness is up to a
single atomic dimension so that the
resolution tunneling current signal
and the images are also up to atomic
dimensions.

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

 Tip is connected to a electrically

controlled piezo-electric tube,
which moves along all the three
axes to adjust the position of the
tip while scanning over the
sample.

 The sample is supplied with a

bias voltage (usually in the range
of 5 mV) to maintain the
direction of the tunneling
current.

 As the tunneling current will be in

the range of micro amperes, it is
amplified by tunneling current
amplifier.

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

 STM operates in two different modes;

1. Constant height mode and
2. Constant current mode.
These are explained as shown in the schematic diagram below:

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

1. Constant height mode:

 The voltage and height are constant, while the current changes to keep the
voltage from changing this leads to an image made of current changes
over the surface, which can be related to charge density.
 In constant height mode scanner will move the tip in plane.

 The benefit to using constant height

mode is faster as the piezoelectric
movements require more time to
register the height change in
constant current mode.
 Generally less preferred due to the
risk of damaging the tip.

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

2. Constant current mode:

 Feedback electronics adjust the height by a voltage to the piezoelectric
height control mechanism.
 This leads to a height variation and thus the image comes from the tip
topography across the sample and gives a constant charge density surface,
this means contrast on the image is due to variation in charge density.

 It is a time consuming methods

compared to the constant height
mode as the feed back control has
to adjust the current constant
according height as the tip moves
along the specimen surface.

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

Wide Applications:

 Physics, semiconductor physics and microelectronics

 Chemistry, surface reaction catalysis

 Biology, in the study of DNA molecules

 Nanoscale chemistry labs, synthetic chemical compounds

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Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) PHY1701
Dr. Ajitha

Advantages:
 Conceptually simple but complexities in use
 Can even move atoms
 Can be used in variety of temperatures
 Perform in different environments(air, water etc.)

Disadvantages:
 It is very expensive
 It need specific training to operate effectively
 Mainly used to analyze conducting materials
 The best results from STM can be obtained only in vacuum conditions, hence
it may not be the best tool to inspect and analyse biological samples

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 PHY1701
Problems Dr. Ajitha

1) The average kinetic energy of neutrons, atoms and molecules is

also expressed in terms of temperature through the
equipartition law E = 3/2 kT. Write down the de-Broglie formula
for such particles whose energy corresponds to temperature T.
Hence determine the wavelength of thermal neutron; Rest mass
of the neutron is 1.67×10-27 kg.(T=300 K say)
𝒑𝟐 𝟑
𝐸= = 𝒌𝑻  p  3m0 kT
𝟐𝒎𝟎 𝟐

According to de-Broglie,
h h h 6.6 1034
   
mv p 3m0 kT 3 1.67 1027 1.38 1023  300
Non-relativistic formula for K.E is used, as it is valid for ‘T’ not very high

  1.46 1010 m
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 PHY1701
Problems Dr. Ajitha

2) A beam of mono-energetic neutrons corresponding to 27oC is

allowed to fall on a crystal. A first order reflection is observed at a
glancing angle 30. Calculate the interplanar spacing of the crystal.
According to Bragg’s law
2d sin   n
2d sin 30o  1   d  
The energy of neutron
E  kT  1.38 1023  300  4.14 1021 J
Now, p  2mn E  2 1.67 1027  4.14 1021

h 6.62 1034
d    
27 21
p 2 1.67 10  4.14 10
10
 1.78 10 m
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 PHY1701
Problems Dr. Ajitha

3) 10 kV electrons are passed through a thin film of a metal for

which the atomic spacing is 5.5×10-11m.What is the angle of
deviation of the first order diffraction maximum?
Wavelength of the electron
h 6.6  1034
 
2.m.eV 2  9.11 1031  104  1.602  1019

 1.227 1011 m
Applying Bragg’s formula for diffraction at the atomic planes,

n  2d sin   11.227 1011  2  5.5  1011 sin 

sin   0.1115
  6o 24'
Angle through which electron is deviated =2𝜃  12 48'
o

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 PHY1701
Problems Dr. Ajitha

4) At what scattering angle will incident 100 keV X-rays leave a

target with an energy of 90 kev.

1 1 1
[  ] 2
(1  cos  )
E' E m0 c
1 1
m0 c 2 [  ]  (1  cos  )
E' E

We get,
cos   0.4428
  64

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 PHY1701
Problems Dr. Ajitha

5) In an experiment of Compton scattering, the incident radiation

has wavelength 2 . Calculate the energy of recoil electron which
scatters radiation through 60o.
Change in wavelength in Compton scattering
h
 '   (1  cos  )
m0 c
 '  2  10 m  2.426  10 m(1  cos 60 )
10 12

 '  2.012  10 m
10

Hence the energy of recoil electron which scatters radiation through 60o, is given by
1 1
E  h  hv '  hc[  ]
 '
E  37eV
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