Building a Scanning Tunneling Microscope for less than $100
By Christopher MooreI am a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) guy. I completed my M.S. thesis using a commercial instrument and I have always wanted to build one. Until recently, I haven’t had the time or the money. About 1 month ago, a student here at Longwood University approached me about doing a project. The first thing that came to my mind was “Let’s build an STM!” The student agreed, and off we went. Now building an STM is part of my job!
Commercial research STM systems cost up to $250k or more. Less powerful “student” systems run around $15,000 but offer little to the researcher. The STM that my student Donald and I are building will end up costing ~$100 in parts. More important, the parts can be found at the local hardware store or ordered online.
Over the next few months Donald and I will chronicle the construction of our STM, showing you what parts we have used, how we are constructing it, and how it works. We plan to have a fully-functional analog STM up and running by the end of this semester (early December 2007). Next semester begining in January, we will chronicle the build of our second STM which will be digitally controlled via a computer. The budget for our computer controlled model is less than $200, and the microprocessor and control board are being designed by an undergraduate at Virginia Commonwealth University.
We have already begun. To learn more about STM, this specific project, or current progress, and what’s next, continue reading.
