14 DAY TRIAL // An amazingly powerful atomic force microscope has succeeded what seems impossible: to detect the chemical identity of individual atoms on a surface.
This instrument enables the researchers to differentiate between different individual atoms of different elements, like iron or silicon, in a mixed compound.
This breakthrough technology will permit the scientists to look at and understand the structure of complex materials and how atoms are arranged in their structure (something impossible before), which means it could be easier to imitate and synthesize them.
The new technology has been developed by a team led by Yoshiaki Sugimoto at the Osaka University in Japan.
The individual atoms on a surface attract or reject the pyramid-shaped tip of this microscope as it goes along above them, signaling their chemical identity; the power of these actions depends on the distance between the atom and the tip, and distance's value, which slightly varies, is a mark of the atom's identity.
Previous investigations achieved the same performance only when the samples were brought to extreme low temperatures.
The Japanese team surpassed this inconvenience through a complex compensation for the motion of the atoms at higher temperatures, so the probes can be studied at room temperature.
"The ability to distinguish atoms of different elements on a surface could be useful for nanotechnology researchers trying to design devices at the molecular level," said Alexander Shluger at the University College London in the UK, not involved in the research.
"If you want to use this as a tool for manufacturing and a tool for nanotechnology, operating at room temperature is much more convenient, because you don't need all this cryogenic equipment," he told.
"Scanning tunneling microscopes are able to make such distinctions, but they only work with conductor and semiconductor materials, a limitation not shared by atomic force microscopes. This achievement provides a more universal tool for this kind of chemical identification," he added.
Image credit: Oscar Custance.