36. Binnig And Rohrer Report Invention Of Scanning Tunneling Microscope (1982)

Binnig, Rohrer, and their colleagues demonstrate a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), which uses an atomically sharp tip to measure a miniscule tunneling current from a material’s surface. The probe can be scanned across a material’s surface to obtain an image with atomic resolution. Binnig later teams up with Quate and Gerber to develop the related technique of atomic force microscopy (AFM).

What is scanning tunneling microscope (STM):

And What is atomic force microscopy (AFM):