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# Quantum Physics; Nanoscale Devices

Colorized version of an image created by the NIST custom-built scanning tunneling microscope as it drags a cobalt atom across a closely packed lattice of copper atoms. Large round features show the cobalt atom bonding to the copper at its preferred, lowest energy bonding site. Bright triangle-shaped areas show the atoms bonding at a higher energy site. The atom  screeches in protest  when the STM tip forces it to sit at this site. Dark areas show positions that the atom  hops  over, refusing to bond at all.

-PHY, hip hop atoms, nanoscale devices

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January 8, 2007

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