u/LemonsPurple

hii,
ich würde euch gerne mein rastertunnelmikroskop (rtm) marke eigenbau vorstellen. die grundidee ist, eine piezo scheibe zu nutzen um eine messspitze zu steuern (diese sind euch vor allem als buzzer/klingeln bekannt) um eine elektrisch leitende oberfläche zu kartografieren. dieses konzept hatte ursprünglich jemand namens john alexander postuliert, welches dann von dan berard, der walla walla university (ja, die heißt wirklich so) und uni regensburg aufgegriffen wurde. leider sind die informationen dazu so verstreut und manchmal unvollständig, manche bauteile obskur oder sehr teuer, dass die hauptaufgabe für mich die konsolidierung all dieser informationen war, wobei die uni regensburg vor allem sehr hilfreich war, mir bei der software zu helfen. round and about könnt ihr mit dieser anleitung für +-600€ ein eigenes kosteneffizentes rtm bauen, welches (fast) ausschließlich aus off the shelf produkten gebaut werden kann

es ist mir nicht möglich all die feinheiten in einem reddit post zusammen zu fassen, weshalb ich jeden interessierten nahelegen möchte sich das repo auf github anzusehen. da findet ihr auch eine BOM, software und weitere infos:
https://github.com/lemonspurple/DIY-Scanning-Tunneling-Microscope

solltet ihr euch generell für open source interessieren freut es euch vielleicht zu lesen, dass die froscon (free and open source convention) dieses wochenende in sankt augustin tagt; ich werde auch dort ausstellen :D
https://froscon.org/ (disclaimer: ich habe keine finanziellen interessen. der eintritt ist frei)

hiii,
earlier this year I built my own scanning tunneling micrscope (stm) and open sourced the whole documentation + software for anyone curious and patient enough to follow through

the concept isn't totally new, a while back john alexander and dan berard built a stm using a piezo disk (you may know them as buzzers from greeting cards) to control a probing needle. this concept has been covered and picked up by the walla walla university and also university of regensburg (latter helped me software-wise out), however, the documentation has been scattered, often incomplete, relied on expensive or rare hardware like data-cards or simply lacked an interpreter for the data. so consolidating all this into one place is what I'm most proud of (aside from all the other things I learned). overall its not cheap, but probably the most cost efficient way to get such a machine, all while being built out of (almost) exclusively off the shelf parts

unfortunately I can only post one image here and the details are impossible to sum up quickly, so to check out the process and also first measurements (I tried out graphene) I'd recommend to check out the repo (it also has a BOM, gerber files and software):

https://github.com/lemonspurple/DIY-Scanning-Tunneling-Microscope

hiii,
earlier this year I built my own scanning tunneling micrscope (stm) and open sourced the whole documentation + software for anyone curious and patient enough to follow through

the concept isn't totally new, a while back john alexander built a stm using a piezo disk (you may know them as buzzers from greeting cards) to control a probing needle. this concept has been covered and picked up by the walla walla university and also university of regensburg (latter helped me software wise out), however, the documentation has been scattered, often incomplete, relied on expensive or rare hardware like data-cards or simply lacked an interpreter for the data. so consolidating all this into one place is what I'm most proud of (aside from all the other things I learned). overall its not cheap, but probably the most cost efficient way to get such a machine, being built almost exclusively from off the shelf parts

the second image is my first measurement of graphene; you can see the hexagonal pattern that is a clear characteristic. in theory, you could scan anything that supports a measurable current. I plan to give gold leaves and blue-rays a try next

you can find all the details / BOM / etc. here:
https://github.com/lemonspurple/DIY-Scanning-Tunneling-Microscope