METHOD OF DETERMINATION OF SUBSTANCE SURFACE TOPOGRAPHY BY MEANS OF SCANNING TUNNEL MICROSCOPE Russian patent published in 1997 - IPC

FIELD: instrumentation engineering, in particular, scanning tunnel microscopy used for examination of surface of conducting substances. SUBSTANCE: method of determination of substance surface topography by means of a scanning tunnel microscope consists in the fact that the surface of the substance to be examined is canned by a metal needle in the conditions of tunneling current; to this end, vertical displacement of the needle relative to the surface to be examined is accomplished in each scanning point equals the value of tunnel current in the first scanning point; the data on microstructure of the surface of the substance under examination are obtained by detecting the needle movement; each scanning point is additionally probed by means of a scanning tunnel microscope after the needle is set in a position corresponding to the required value of tunneling current; the probing is performed by a microwave signal with the aid of the metal needle of the scanning tunnel microscope installed at the top of the tapered surface of a coaxial microwave resonator; the substance to be examined is placed in this resonator, fluctuations of the microwave signal are detected, dielectric constant of the substance under examination is determined; with the aid of which and data obtained by means of the scanning tunnel microscope the topography pattern of the substance under examination is formed. EFFECT: facilitated procedure. 1 dwg