IBM probe detects an atom's charge

Researchers at the Zurich lab, along with colleagues at the University of Regensburg and Utrecht University, used an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a tuning-fork detector arrangement on the tip of its probe. This device was used to distinguish among gold atoms that were positively charged, neutral or negatively charged. The researchers described their approach in the 12 June issue of the magazine Science.

"The AFM with single-electron-charge sensitivity is a powerful tool to explore the charge transfer in molecule complexes, providing us with crucial insights and new physics to what might one day lead to revolutionary computing devices and concepts," Gerhard Meyer, who IBM's work with the AFM and its precursor, the scanning tunnelling microscope (STM), said in an IBM statement.