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Article: Scanning the surface: from gold atoms to benzene molecules, the scanning tunneling microscope probes the intricate structure of surfaces.
- Article from:
- Science News
- Article date:
- April 1, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1989 Science Service, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Scanning the Surface
"The surface was invented by the devil," said the late physicist Wolfgang Pauli in expressing his frustration with the complexity of surfaces.
Unlike atoms inside a solid, which lie nestled within cocoons of congenial companions, surface atoms stand guard at the frontier between the solid and the rest of the world. They reside in a radically different environment, which means a solid's surface properties differ considerably from those of its interior. That difference has long thwarted attempts at building a precise theoretical and empirical picture of what happens at surfaces.
In the scanning tunneling microscope, ...