Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Undergraduate Instruction in Thin Film Science

为了加强材料科学与工程系大四学生电子薄膜实验室的建设，提出了“薄膜科学本科教学用扫描隧道显微镜”项目。由于表面热力学和动力学在薄膜电子材料的生长和加工中起着关键作用，我们寻求扩大我们实验室的主题，包括表面原子结构和表面热力学和动力学。STM的发明使本科生有机会不仅单独观察原子，而且在最基本的层面上测量材料的基本性质。它将在我们的实验室中用于观察表面原子之间相互作用的动力学，这是理解材料扩散、聚结和晶粒生长等基本过程的关键。根据我们在STM方面的个人经验和同事们的意见，我们编制了一套实验来研究它们是否适合本科教学。实验包括隧道现象，结构和微观结构表征，包括单个有机吸附物的原子分辨率和聚合物的二维有序。然而，这项工作的大部分发展将集中在设计实验上，强调材料科学的核心概念：成核和生长。详细说明这些实验的报告将作为实验室手册编写。

The "Scanning Tunneling Microscope for Undergraduate Instruction in Thin Film Science" project is proposed to enhance the undergraduate Electronic Thin Film laboratory for seniors in the Materials Science and Engineering Department. Because surface thermodynamics and kinetics play a key role in the growth and processing of thin film electronic materials, we seek to expand the topics for our laboratory to include surface atomic structure and surface thermodynamics and kinetics. The invention of the STM allows undergraduate students the opportunity to actually observe not only atoms individually but also to measure fundamental properties of materials on the most basic level. It will be used in our laboratory to observe the dynamics of the interactions between the atoms on the surface which is key to understanding the basic materials processes such as diffusion, coalescence and grain growth. Drawing on our personal experience with STM and the input of colleagues we have assembled set of experiments to be investigated for their suitability for undergraduate instruction. Experiments include tunneling phenomena, structure and microstructure characterization including atomic resolution of individual organic adsorbates and the 2-D ordering of polymers. However the majority of the development of this work will be focused toward designing experiments which emphasis core concepts in materials science: Nucleation and Growth. A report which details these experiments will be written as a laboratory manual.