Scanning Seebeck Microscope
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) announced on April 2 that a Korean research team – led by Kim Yong-hyun, assistant professor of the graduate school of Nanoscience and Tehcnology at KAIST, and Dr. Yeo Hogi from the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science – has successfully developed a technology to make a scanning seebeck microscope (SSM). It was made possible to clearly observe atoms and the shape of an electron cloud by creating electrical pressure using a difference in temperature.
The SSM, which promises high resolution at room temperature, allows researchers to observe defects in graphene and semiconductors at the atomic level. Therefore, the new tech is expected to greatly contribute to improving the quality of graphene-based products and semiconductors, and to lowering the price of those products.
Professor Kim said, “We succeeded in providing the framework to understand previously-unknown thermophysical phenomena at the nano scale,” adding, “I think that the tech to produce an SSM will becomean important method for studying the surface of agglutinable substances.”
The research findings were published online in the April 1 issue of Physical Review Letters, a weekly scientific journal by the American Physical Society.