A PRESENTATION ON

PRESENTED
BY

&

M.SC. PHYSICS IV SEMESTER

DEPARTMENT OF PURE & APPLIED PHYSICS
UNIVERSITY OF KOTA,KOTA
 HISTORY
 QUANTUM TUNNELING
MATHEMATICAL OVERVIEW OF QUANTUM TUNNELING
 COMPONENTS OF STM
 WORKING PRINCIPLE
 WORKING OF STM
 USE OF STM
 ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
 REFERENCES
STM
History
The scanning tunneling microscope was developed at
IBM Zürich in 1981 by Gerd Binning and Heinrich
Rohrer who shared the Nobel Prize for physics in 1986
because of the microscope.

Gerd Binning Heinrich Rohrer

Quantum Tunneling
Classical
Wave Function
For Finite Square
Well Potential
Where E<V

Classically, when an object hits a potential that

it doesn’t have enough energy to pass, it will
never go though that potential wall, it always
bounces back.

In English, if you throw a ball at a wall, it will

bounce back at you.
Quantum Tunneling
Quantum
Wave Function
For Finite Square
Well Potential
Where E<V

In quantum mechanics when a particle hits a

potential that it doesn’t have enough energy
to pass, when inside the square well, the wave
function dies off exponentially.

If the well is short enough, there will be a noticeable

probability of finding the particle on the other side.
MATHEMATICAL OVERVIEW OF Quantum Tunneling

Through a barrier, quantum mechanics predicts that the wave

function dies off exponentially:

So the probability of finding an electron after a barrier of width d is:

Plugging in typical values for m, d, and phi (where phi is the

average work function of the tip and the sample)
 Tunneling Current

In a metal, the energy levels of the electrons are filled up to a particular

energy, known as the ‘Fermi energy’ 𝐸𝐹. In order for an electron to leave
the metal, it needs an additional amount of energy Φ, the so-called ‘work
function’.

The electrons need to overcome a barrier Φ to travel from tip to

specimen or vice versa.

When a sharp metallic tip is brought very close to the surface of a

conductor, an electric current can be detected due to the tunneling of
electrons through the air gap. In this case, the air gap is considered as the
barrier and is only few 𝐴 ° thick.

When an electrical voltage V is applied between sample and tip, this

tunneling phenomenon results in a net electrical current, the ‘tunneling
current’.
 IMAGES FROM STM

 IRON ATOMs AT THE SURFACE OF Cu (111)

 References

G. Binnig and H. Rohrer. "Scanning Tunneling Microscopy", IBM J Res. Develop., 30:355,
1986.

G. Binnig, H. Rohrer, “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - From Birth to Adolescence”, Nobel

lecture, December 8, 1986.

Tit-Wah Hui, “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy - A Tutorial”,

http://www.chembio.uoguelph.ca/educmat/chm729/STMpage/stmtutor.htm

Wikipedia, “Scanning Tunneling Microscope”,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope

Nobel e-Museum, “The Scanning Tunneling Microscope”,

http://www.nobel.se/physics/educational/microscopes/scanning/index.html

Pictures from http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/blue.html