Measure the force needed to move an atom

2008/04/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Fisika

A group of American, Swiss and German physicists have measured the force needed to move a cobalt atom over two surfaces of platinum and copper. In order to carry out this measurement, a tunnel effect microscope (STM) has been modeled, which usually uses the atoms individually to move precisely on an atomic scale, since it is not actually capable of doing so. To move the cobalt atom on the platinum surface 160 meters (1.6 x 10-10 meters), 210 piconewton (2.1 x 10-10 newton) and 17 piconewton were needed to move on the copper surface.