Mastering matter at the nanoscale

摘要

In the early 1980s, the development of scanning probe techniques gave scientists atitillating view of surfaces with nanometre resolution, igniting activity in researchat the nanoscale. Images at unprecedented resolution were unveiled with the aidof various types of nanosized tips, including the scanning tunnelling (Binnig G,Rohrer H, Gerber C and Weibel E 1982 Appl. Phys. Lett. 40 178-80) the atomicforce (Binnig G, Quate C F and Gerber C 1986 Phys. Rev. Lett. 56 930-3) and the near-field scanning microscopes (Dfirig U, Pohl D W and Rohner F 1986J. Appl. Phys. 59 3318-27). From the magnitude of tunnelling currents betweenconductive surfaces and van der Waals forces between dielectrics to thenon-propagating evanescent fields at illuminated surfaces, a range of signalresponses were harnessed enabling conductive, dielectric and even biologicalsystems to be imaged. But it may be argued that it was the ability to manipulatematter at the nanoscale that really empowered nanotechnology.