cooley@celerity.fps.com (03/21/90)
FYI - There was a short article in the 3/8/90 issue of Electronic Design, at the bottom of page 30 about using a STM as a "manipulator". Two researchers at Philips in the Netherlands used a Scanning Tunneling Electron Microscope (STM) as a scribe to create surface features on a silicon substrate. They positioned the "needle", then turned off the control circuit that maintains a constant 0.5 nm height above the surface. They then poked the needle several tenths of a nm into the surface. Then turning on the control circuit backed the needle out. They made "pits" 0.6 nm deep and 10 nm across. Apparently the needle was not damaged by this (ab)use. Their research seems to be oriented towards ultra dense memories, since the article repeatedly pointed out that the densities achieved are 10^4 times that of a compact disk. But perhaps this is an indicator of the possibility of using the STM as a manipulator in the near future. Jud Cooley cooley@fps.com