Researchers Build Sharpest Tip

July 13, 2006 | Source: ScienceDaily

Robert Wolkow, a physics professor at the University of Alberta, has made the sharpest tip ever known: a one atom-thick coating of nitrogen for binding a pyramid of metal atoms.

These sharp tips are needed for making contact with metals or semiconductors as well as for the manipulation and examination of atoms, molecules and small particles. They may also allow for make the highest-resolution electron microscopes.