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QUANTUM CORRAL |
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Figure 1. A closer look of Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) image of quantum corral (2)
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Quantum Corral is a ring of 48 iron atoms on a copper (111) surface. The iron atoms confine some of the copper's surface electrons, making them into quantum states visible as circular rings (or standing-wave patterns defined by 2-D Schrödinger wave equation) inside the corral. The 48 iron atoms, adsorbed on the copper (111) surface, were moved into position with the tip of a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM), to make a corral ring with a radius of 71.3 Angstroms. The corral ring resembles as a barrier that forced surface state electrons into quantum states seen in Figure 1 as circular rings of electron density in the interior of corral ring. The ripples in the corral ring represent the density distribution of a particular set of quantum states of copper's surface electrons. The quantum corral also represents the popular classic eigenvalue problem in quantum mechanics, known as a particle in a squared well box model. The image is also obtained by using STM. Colors were added artificially (1, 2). The quantum corral also verifies the existence of electrons and resembles a 2-D infinite well.
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Figure 2. The STM image that shows the various stages during the construction of the circular corral (2) |
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Figure 3. A quantum corral (colors are added artificially) (3) |
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References: 1. http://web.mit.edu/i-m/image11big.htm 2. http://www.almaden.ibm.com/vis/stm/corral.html 3. http://www.nanoscience.com/education/STM.html
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