Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 2 December 1994:
Vol. 266. no. 5190, pp. 1538 - 1540
DOI: 10.1126/science.7985024
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Science, Vol 266, Issue 5190, 1538-1540
Copyright © 1994 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Scanning tunneling microscopy of insulators and biological specimens based on lateral conductivity of ultrathin water films

R Guckenberger, M Heim, G Cevc, HF Knapp, W Wiegrabe, and A Hillebrand

Max-Planck-Institut fur Biochemie, Martinsried, Germany.

Scanning tunneling microscopy is based on the flow of an electrical current and thus cannot be used to directly image insulating material. It has been found, however, that a very thin film of water (about one monolayer) adsorbed to a surface exhibits a surprisingly high conductivity that is sufficient to allow scanning tunneling microscope imaging at currents below 1 picoampere. Hydrophilic insulators, such as glass and mica, can thus be imaged in humid air. The same is true for biological specimens deposited on such surfaces, as demonstrated by the scanning tunneling microscope imaging of plasmid DNA on mica.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Contactless experiments on individual DNA molecules show no evidence for molecular wire behavior.
C. Gomez-Navarro, F. Moreno-Herrero, P. J. de Pablo, J. Colchero, J. Gomez-Herrero, and A. M. Baro (2002)
PNAS 99, 8484-8487
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Electrical conduction in layer silicates investigated by combined scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy.
H. LINDGREEN (2000)
Clay Minerals 35, 643-652
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Varieties of imaging with scanning probe microscopes.
H. G. Hansma (1999)
PNAS 96, 14678-14680
   Full Text »    PDF »
Imaging of biological macromolecules on mica in humid air by scanning electrochemical microscopy.
F.-R. F. Fan and A. J. Bard (1999)
PNAS 96, 14222-14227
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Proton long-range migration along protein monolayers and its consequences on membrane coupling.
B. Gabriel and J. Teissie (1996)
PNAS 93, 14521-14525
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
STM on Wet Insulators: Electrochemistry or Tunneling?.
F.-R. F. Fan, A. J. Bard;, R. Guckenberger, and M. Heim (1995)
Science 270, 1849-1852
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)