Atoms can only be observed individually using special instruments such as the scanning tunneling microscope.

With a time-lapse series of scanning tunneling microscopy images, they determined the molecules undergo adsorption, dissociation and diffusion before reacting.

The scanning tunneling microscope uses quantum tunneling of electrons from a sharp metal tip into the studied material and can produce atomically resolved images of its surface.

Examples of scanning probe microscopes are the atomic force microscope ( AFM ), the Scanning tunneling microscope and the photonic force microscope.

The first was the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981, developed by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer.

* ESTM electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope

* PSTM, photon scanning tunneling microscopy

* SPSM spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy

The emergence of nanotechnology in the 1980s was caused by the convergence of experimental advances such as the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and the discovery of fullerenes in 1985, with the elucidation and popularization of a conceptual framework for the goals of nanotechnology beginning with the 1986 publication of the book Engines of Creation.

The scanning tunneling microscope, an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level, was developed in 1981 by Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer at IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, for which they received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1986.

These ideas were later realized by the use of the scanning tunneling microscope, the atomic force microscope and other examples of probe microscopy and storage systems such as Millipede, created by researchers at IBM.

A scanning tunneling microscope ( STM ) is an instrument for imaging surfaces at the atomic level.

A close-up of a simple scanning tunneling microscope head using a platinum – iridium tip.

This type of measurement is called scanning tunneling spectroscopy ( STS ) and typically results in a plot of the local density of states as a function of energy within the sample.

These include photon scanning microscopy ( PSTM ), which uses an optical tip to tunnel photons ; scanning tunneling potentiometry ( STP ), which measures electric potential across a surface ; spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy ( SPSTM ), which uses a ferromagnetic tip to tunnel spin-polarized electrons into a magnetic sample, and atomic force microscopy ( AFM ), in which the force caused by interaction between the tip and sample is measured.

* Electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope

* Spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy

* Tersoff, J .: Hamann, D. R .: Theory of the scanning tunneling microscope, Physical Review B 31, 1985, p. 805-813.

Microscopy can be categorized into three different fields: optical microscopy, electron microscopy, and scanning probe microscopy.

A scanning electron microscopy image of carbon nanotubes bundles

* When scanning the fluorescent intensity across a plane one has fluorescence microscopy of tissues, cells, or subcellular structures, which is accomplished by labeling an antibody with a fluorophore and allowing the antibody to find its target antigen within the sample.

There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical, electron, and scanning probe microscopy.

This process may be carried out by wide-field irradiation of the sample ( for example standard light microscopy and transmission electron microscopy ) or by scanning of a fine beam over the sample ( for example confocal laser scanning microscopy and scanning electron microscopy ).

Scanning probe microscopy involves the interaction of a scanning probe with the surface of the object of interest.

Using a scanning point of light instead of full sample illumination confocal microscopy gives slightly higher resolution, and significant improvements in optical sectioning.

* 1978: Theoretical basis of super resolution 4Pi microscopy & design of a confocal laser scanning fluorescence microscope

Specialized techniques ( e. g., scanning confocal microscopy, Vertico SMI ) may exceed this magnification but the resolution is diffraction limited.

A cathode-ray tube ( CRT ) television displays an image by scanning a beam of electrons across the screen in a pattern of horizontal lines known as a raster.

A scanning electron microscope ( SEM ) image of a normal red blood cell, a platelet, and a white blood cell.

As with digital photocopiers and multifunction printers ( MFPs ), laser printers employ a xerographic printing process but differ from analog photocopiers in that the image is produced by the direct scanning of a laser beam across the printer's photoreceptor.

In scanning electron microscopes, the image is produced by rastering a finely focused electron beam, as in a TV set, across the studied sample.

An image of an ant in a scanning electron microscope

Unlike the TEM, where electrons of the high voltage beam carry the image of the specimen, the electron beam of the scanning electron microscope ( SEM ) does not at any time carry a complete image of the specimen.

False-color scanning electron microscope | SEM image of the filter setae of an Antarctic krill.

Its main competitors were the Bélinograf by Édouard Belin first, then since the 1930s the Hellschreiber, invented in 1929 by German inventor Rudolf Hell, a pioneer in mechanical image scanning and transmission.

Creating a positive image from a negative film can also be done by scanning the negative to create a computer file which can then be reversed by software.

A scanning electron microscope image of a single neutrophil ( yellow ), engulfing anthrax bacteria ( orange ).

Image and Scanner Interface Specification ( ISIS ) is an industry standard interface for image scanning technologies, developed by Pixel Translations in 1990 ( today: EMC captiva ).

Functions include but are not limited to selecting, installing, and configuring a new scanner ; setting scanner-specific parameters ; scanning, reading and writing files, and fast image scaling, rotating, displaying, and printing.

One grouping is based on what interacts with the sample to generate the image, i. e., light or photons ( optical microscopes ), electrons ( electron microscopes ) or a probe ( scanning probe microscopes ).

Magnification of the image is achieved by displaying the data from scanning a physically small sample area on a relatively large screen.

The image was captured by Confocal laser scanning microscopy | scanning confocal microscopy.

All of the text was entered manually until 1989 when image scanners and optical character recognition software improved and became more widely available, which made book scanning more feasible.

Experimentation is in progress in retrieving the audio from old records by scanning the disc and analysing the scanned image, rather than using any sort of turntable.

The resolution of an image is limited by the radius of curvature of the scanning tip of the STM.

Nonconductive specimens tend to charge when scanned by the electron beam, and especially in secondary electron imaging mode, this causes scanning faults and other image artifacts.

From this period forward, scanning in one form or another has been used in nearly every image transmission technology to date, including television.

Baird's scanning disk produced an image of 30 lines resolution, just enough to discern a human face, from a double spiral of Photographic lenses.