🚀 go-pugleaf

ajackson@phoenix.princeton.edu (Andrew William Jackson) writes:

>In article <Jan.19.22.33.54.1993.23032@planchet.rutgers.edu> ewstroup@cc.utah.edu (ERIC W. STROUP) writes:
>>	I agree with you completely.  Building a STM/AFM from scratch would 
>>give valuable insight into its workings.

>Reading a few scientific papers would give you valuable insight into its
>workings.

>ajackson@ernie.princeton.edu

About 2 or 3 years ago I investigated the possibility of making my own STM
(and I presume you meamn Scanning Tunnelling Microscope, since I came in
late on this), and although the electronincs for scanning seemed relatively
easy for anyone with a few years experience, the biggest (unresolved) problem
I found was the actual movement mechanism.
From reading up on the topic, it seemed peizo electric devices were easy to
manipulate - ie: you gave the things a voltage, and would deform a particular
abount...   however I couldnt find any piezo-electric devices that behaved thi
(excuse the formatting of this pls)  err..  that behaved this way with DC
voltages.   Given a AC volatge, they would deform as expected (and beep if the
frequency was above a few hundred Hz...   but given a DC voltage, they would
behave like a capacitor, in that they wouldnt deform to any measurable
amount, and like a capacitor, would absorb a charge.
Since scanning rates in STM's arent quick, this effectively killed my 
'project', since I couldnt find a peizo electric device that would do what
I needed (ie: deform to a given voltage).
 So...  to any people who HAVE built one, what did you use?