Look forward to the convergence of two exciting new technologies in
days ahead. The intense present-day development of virtual reality
hardware and software (including ray-tracers like POV-Ray and
browser languages like VRML) is designed for the exploration of
pretend environments. The Nobel prize winning invention in the
1980's of the scanning tunneling microscope and its proximal
probe cousins is, in the 1990's, allowing us to utilize the virtual
interfaces mentioned above for the exploration not of pretend, but
of real, worlds on the micron and atomic size scales*. It lets
all of us, students and researchers alike, become nano-humans. In
the near future, you will be able to join your friends in your
own Fantastic Voyages, exploring and modifying surface worlds on
the size scale of molecules. With your headset on, the surface you
see before you as you move around will ripple a bit every few
seconds as the scanning probe tip passes by**. We provide examples
of this technology, and discuss how the physics that you
experience on micron and nanometer scales is likely to differ.
* cf. S. Chaing (editor), "Force and tunneling microscopy", Chemical Reviews 97 (4) 1015-1230 (1997)
** P. Fraundorf, "Scanning Tunneling Microscope" in the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology 1999, p.320-322
In addition to our AAPT
abstract,
see also some older
working notes,
pictures related to the
21 Dec 1997 Post Dispatch Article, and our scanned tip and electron image
lab page.