Christopher Moore is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Coastal Carolina University. He lives in Myrtle Beach, SC with his wife and two children.Donnie and I have finally managed to get a stable tunneling current with our STM. On Thursday we ran a couple of traces in the x-direction, and as long as we didn’t touch the table or the air handler wasn’t on we saw minimal historesis.
Next week we will set everything up on stone block/foam sandwiches for vibration isolation, put in a gold sample, and try to get a decent XY scan on the oscilloscope. I’ll post pictures then.
Update: Click the links below to navigate through the entire STM build series.
Building a scanning tunneling microscope for less than $100
STM update
STM is working!
Pictures of the STM
Congratulations, Chris! Just what you always wanted: an STM of your very own.
-Matt
I have wanted to build one for a while now. Donald got to do most of the fun part, though. There’s not an ounce of publishable research that this thing is capable of, but it was fun.
I hope THE Ohio State is treating you well. I wonder if Ben still wanders around here. He was (or still is) a string guy at THE Ohio State.
Not viable for research? That’s disappointing. This isn’t coming out of your startup funds, is it?
Matt, you must not have read the original posts on the STM. We built the thing out of scrap aluminum and washers for less than $100.
However, there is actually an ounce of publishable work. The electronics will serve as the foundation for an apparatus that I am designing for a tunneling through a potential barrier experiment aimed towards the undergraduate modern lab. I’ll probably publish that in AJP when I finish the prototype this summer.
My start-up funds so far have gotten me tapping mode AFM, a source-measure unit for films, a sputter-deposition system, and a few power supplies. I still have to figure out how to spend next years allotment. Keep in mind, also, that I am at a primarily undergrad institution. Our start-up packages are MUCH smaller, and or research expectations are much lower.