Scanning Probe Microscopies: In Touch with Atoms

Description
Since their invention, scanning probe microscopies (scanning tunneling microscopy, STM, and atomic force microscopy, AFM) emerged as powerful and versatile techniques for atomic and nanometer-scale characterization and manipulation of a wide variety of organic and inorganic systems. Nowadays, scanning probe microscopies have a strong impact on nanometer scale science and technology since they are not only the “eyes” to image and see atomic and molecular structures but also the “fingers” to manipulate and modify such structures. In this talk, after a short historical review on the development of scanning probe microscopies, the basic operation principles of STM (constant height and constant current modes) and AFM (static and dynamic modes) will be illustrated. The main part of the talk will be focused on the disruptive potentialities of STM and AFM in characterization and manipulation of atomic and molecular systems. The wide range applications of STM and AFM in terms of nano-characterization (topographic, electrical, magnetic, chemical) and nano-fabrication (nanolithography, single atom and molecule manipulation) will be illustrated by several examples that are writing the present and the future of the nanometer scale science and technology. In particular, strengths and weaknesses of both techniques will be highlighted. Finally, potentialities of the new STM/AFM Veeco-Innova system, recently installed at the Department of Physics and Astronomy of the University of Catania, will be illustrated. In particular, starting from some preliminary results obtained by the Veeco-Innova system on various samples (imaging of metallic nano- and micro-structures on various substrates, of polymeric systems and much more), its strengths and limits will be discussed.
Organised by Francesco Ruffini