Today I am imaging the silicon (001) surface. Now i kind of know how to do everything i can get myself an okay surface and start to get the finessing of the tip right. Now this shows the kind of thing you want to see: regular crystalline structure over the surface. The tip is still a bit dull as i cannot see the individual atoms on the surface but i have plenty of time to work on that. I need to get it so that the tip is well shaped but still robust enough not to become easily deformed. You do this by pulsing the voltage, touching the tip to the surface, making it oscillate.. lots of little tricks to try and bring the tip that one step close to perfection. This is the dark art of STM. BLACK MAGIC!
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