TEM Pictures of STM Tips


A few TEM studies of STM tips have been published in the literature.
Here are some TEM micrographs of STM tips we have taken.
These photos are useful reminders of why not every STM experiment yields reliable data.

Sharp STM tips can be easily made by cutting Pt/Ir (Platinum/Iridium) wire with a clean cutter.
The Pt/Ir tips do not oxidize as quickly as W (Tungsten) tips and can be kept for a longer time.
The overall shape of cut tips may not be well defined, but the end of the tips can be very sharp.

The followings images are TEM pictures of some STM tips.
The black objects represent the STM tips.

TEM pictures were taken by Elton Graugnard and Takhee Lee (Sep. 1999).


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Ron Reifenberger
Last modified: Fri Jul 19 11:29:35 EST 2002