Análise do princípio básico de funcionamento do STM

Abstract

The objective of this ending course work is to show a useful application of the quantum phenomenon known as tunnel effect or tunneling. It`s about the STM (scanning tunneling microscope), invented in 1981 by the German Gerd Binnig together with the Swiss Heinrich Rohrer. This invention brought for both the Nobel Prize in physics in 1986. The STM is part of a group of instruments that are used to analyze surfaces known as the SPMs (scanning probe microscopes). In general, these microscopes have a very sharp tip (that must have its tip composed by a single atom), that is used to explore the surface that has to be analyzed, to obtain not only pictures with atomic resolution but to manipulate atoms on a surface. Therefore, the STM contributed for the miniaturization of electronic circuits that are intimately linked to the present technological advances. So in this work the necessity of insertion of Modern Physics studies in the elementary education is also discussed, because the STM is an application of a quantum effect and to the present technological advances are intimately linked to this part of Physics.