On Monday 03/21/2011, the new nanotechnology major equipment is in the research building Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering (Schneiderberg 39, 30167 Hannover, Germany) in the presence of the President of the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Professor Erich Barke, officially put into operation. With the so-called 4-point probe STM / SEM are microscopy and electrical conductivity measurements possible on atomic dimensions. Worldwide are currently only about 15 of these major equipments in use.
The physics and chemistry of nanostructures differs fundamentally from the ones of classical solids. In the low-dimensional structures, quantum effects play in the electronic structure and transport behavior often a decisive role. Using a so-called 4-point probe STM / SEM, which combines the benefits of a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a scanning tunneling microscope (STM), it is possible to locate such nanostructures on surfaces selectively and characterize them at the atomic size scale. Individual contact with four separately controllable STM tips also allows electrical conductivity measurements on these tiny structures.
The 4-point probe STM / SEM at a cost of 1.25 million Euros is funded after a successful application of Professor Herbert Pfnür and Privatdozent Christoph Tegenkamp of the Institute for Solid State Physics (ATMOS) of the Leibniz University Hannover by the German Research Foundation (DFG). It is situated in the research building of the Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering, where besides the working group Pfnür as the main users it can be interdisciplinary shared by other groups of the laboratory.
Privatdozent Tegenkamp demonstrates for university president Barke the new nanotechnology major equipment (photo: O. Kerker)
Note to Editors:
For further information, Privatdozent Christoph Tegenkamp from the Institute of Solid-State Physics at telephone +49 511 762 2542 or e-mail at tegenkamp@fkp.uni-hannover.de and Dr. Fritz Schulze Wischeler from the Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering at Tel +49 1512 2302069 or e-mail at schulze-wischeler@lnqe.uni-hannover.de are available.
