VISUALISING THE INVISIBLE © P.Stroppa/CEA The resolution of the human eye is no greater than 0.2 mm and that of the optical microscope is limited to a micrometre or micron (0.001 mm). Over the last decades, observation and manipulation tools have been perfected: today, using scanning probe microscopy, scanning tunnelling microscopes or atomic force microscopes, we can visualise atoms to the actions of a man in darkness as he feels his way around with his fingers. Here, the microscope uses an ultrafine point made up of a single atom at its tip. A great deal of progress is still to be made before we can manufacture nanostructures industrially, since "nanotools" are still very primitive. |
