Building a 3D Printed Atomic-Resolution Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) | DIY STM Explained

[@LanceThumping]

Projects like this need to be their own sub-field of science. Work put into creating methods and designs for science to be done at simpler and cheaper levels is incredibly important and deserves more recognition.

[@zombieregime]

it kinda is. its usually referred to as citizen science, or simply DIY lab gear. The trade off is repeatability, reliability, useability, resolution, etc. But that being said, not everyone that would like to make use of, say an atomic force microscope, needs a just push a button and go repeatability and resolution on the finest levels possible. We just need SOME level of repeatability and ease of use, that is relatively reliable. Even if that comes at needing to start with a datum every run to zero everything. The problem is labware is made for the complete other side of that equation. The research labs with grants and such. Places that dont think twice about buying a machine that is 6 or 7 digits, comes with an install crew, and optional construction of a new building to house it, and a weekly maintenance plan for 10 years, plus a 6 month course in how to use it for the lab techs. Yeah, citizen scientists dont need that. And they wont sell them to us at a reasonable price.....so we figure out how to hack our way around the problem. You should check out the laser scanners made from old dvd drives ;)

[@LanceThumping]

@@zombieregime That's pretty true but what I mean is that that type of science needs formal recognition and a subgroup of research teams with some funding. We should have proper papers coming out in the field and helping push for simplification as well as advancement in official ways.

[@thatoneguy99100]

@@LanceThumping In general this falls into the field of metrology

[@zombieregime]

@@LanceThumping I kinda get what you're saying. But its not necessarily a 'research' problem. And when someone DOES come up with a novel scientific way of hacking a piece of equipment together it usually does make the rounds on hack-a-day, the various science magazine outlets, reddit, maker, etc. And I absolutely agree there is some gear that is just unapologetically ridiculously you are taking the piss priced. Just....like, no. But since the only places that regularly buy these things have massive budgets and they buy 10 at a time, coupled with the fact that only selling to those kinds of places means they have a niche market so they're not exactly making a whole lot of turnover, even though they're not exactly rushed and stressed building them to get them out the door, the market forces just aren't there to bring the prices down. So we hobbies down here on the bottom either get toys or stuffed too expensive for the average person to own. Leaving only those cursed with the overactive tinkering mindset to attempt building something vaguely capable of those kinds of readings out of whatever we have laying around. The thing is, in order to cobble together something, like just for sake of argument, the dvd laser scanners, youd first have to know how A) a optical pickup for disk based media works, and B) how a scanning laser microscope works. You have to be at least vaguely familiar with the kinds of performance that is required to composite readings taken from the photodiode array in the optical pickup, supposing you could capture enough detail reliably you then have to stitch them together in a meaningful way, which means very fine control of the stage and sample (most projects ive seen use speakers and high resolution DACs to very finely move the stage in steps over the focal point). So basically you need to understand not just how a given piece of data is produced, but physically how that machine mechanically works and the kinds of effects varying degrees of precision will have on the output. What im saying is its not a science problem. Its an engineering problem. And when you get to the level of needing a scanning laser microscope in uni, a home lab build, from scratch, and all the troubleshooting that goes with developing a robust design eventually hits the "aaaand I've moved on" stage. Evidenced by the fact that I have yet to see a number of these home made devices be brought to a robust state. They usually make big head way then die at the actual hard part, tuning in the precision. There is a reason why the lab stuff is so expensive, because it's precision ground, guaranteed square, (usually) set up perfect. The manufacturer has done all the hard parts for you, just drop your sample in and go. When you get to that painted yourself into a corner stage you just kind of lose interest when you realize you have to remake the whole thing but this time using brand new blocks of aluminum that you have to machine yourself because the optical pick up carriages you were using are just a little too flimsy..... Hell, a PCR incubator digester hot cold cycle plate thingy (I forget what they're called) is just a offset bearing and a pelter device. A pc fan can easily be press ganged into covering a good percentage of centrifuge tasks. Hot plates are just .... Uh, hot plates. But when it comes down to it, are you going to spend a couple months chasing down gremlins, or are you going to just spend the $200 and buy a used one on eBay that has a bad power cord? I mean, there's a KZbin video that just went up not too long ago of a guy that got a scanning electron microscope for free after going to look at it when it was $800, it was a little steep for him at the time but he said if you need someone to haul it to the dumpster give him a call a couple months later they gave him a call and he wound up with a free scanning electron microscope. Granted and needed some work but considering the sale cost of that model much less anything anywhere near those outdated capabilities these days he made out like a freaking bandit! There's no need to reinvent the wheel when if you look around you'll find something you can roll on just fine. That's not to say you can't make rough approximations of a wheel should the mood strike you, and you have the familiarity with the parts of the sum.

[@gackhuhn4868]

As someone who has worked with stm i can guarantee you that your results are insanely good. The Maschine i worked on was a giant multi ton monster and the results were similar.

[@Traper_T]

My teacher was working on creating STM microscope and fact taht you were able to make it your self is amazing

[@kimpitus1700]

Wow man, this is some high quality video and an insane project

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

Glad you think so!

[@bc7443]

High-quality project, low quality video. Im tired of these ai voiced and written videos. I think this is the first ive seen it on a video with this impressive of a project, and it breaks my heart in way i didnt expect

[@StormBurnX]

@@bc7443 My thoughts exactly. I find I always prefer listening to the person talking about their project, or even just reading captions, rather than listening to AI slop like this.

[@JohnSmith-b4w]

@@bc7443 Once I realized it was AI-voice, I started wondering what else was fake. Were the images fake? Was the entire video AI-generated? Was this even a real project? It seems pretty cool, but it leaves too many doubts.

[@swietec9860]

​​@@bc7443​ I disagree. Visually this video is very well made both from quality of the individual shots and the editing. The script is also great and explains everything in good detail while still being entertaining. Opinions on the ai voice can differ from person to person and I get how it makes it kind of seem like one of those auto generated click farming videos, but it should be very obvious that this is not the case here. Personally I found the voice quiet good and if it lowers the entrance barrier for documenting your own engineering projects in video form, I consider that a gain.

[@aam50]

Wow. A functional STM from 3d printed parts and low-cost off the shelf components. Great project and thanks for sharing. As the saying goes, “What a time to be alive”!

[@AccidentalScience]

Cutting the piezoelectric disc is a pure touch of genius.

[@paulussturm6572]

This is just insane. If someone told me anyone had managed to 3d print a fully functional STM at such a low cost, I'd probably just chuckle and assume they were joking. Great job man.

[@Jackson_Zheng]

the amount of creativity here is insane!

[@Andrei-pt8vo]

Having this as a first project on your channel is insane. Love the quality and can't wait to see your next projects.

[@melchiorhof6557]

Pretty cool what you did! About 20 years ago I did interns and later worked on the microscope department of the University of Leiden and later TU-Delft in the Netherlands. I have played around with the portable STM to get familiar with the matter and after that did a big project of overhauling and modifying an experimental Variable-Temperature-STM. They have made lots of scientific research with publications with my microscope. Later on I designed probe holders for some more years for Transfer-Electron-Microscopes. But chose an other path in life. Still your video journey brings me back every step I made back then.

[@chopper3lw]

Nicely done. Kudos! I built one of the first STMs after IBM in the 80's and it took me months until the first images HOPG atoms appeared.

[@polecat3]

Wow, I really would not have guessed that it'd be possible to achieve this level of accuracy with 3D printed parts! Super impressive

[@firesnake6311]

Instantly subscribed, I love these types of open source projects, its crazy how far we gone that now days we can make atomic microscope in our house

[@TD-er]

This video should have at least 100x as many views and the subscriber count is also at least this factor off. What an impressive result using just the parts most of which also are present in my drawer doing nothing right now.

[@GoughCustom]

"as we learned in kindergarten" 😂

[@rafaelguida2317]

I literally added this to favorites as soon as I saw the thumbnail. We've come to an age in manufacturing and information where brilliant people like you can build what would take universities many months and funding. Congrats !

[@fluffy_tail4365]

KZbin serving me a new incredible tech and open knowledge channel! Subscribed ! and incredible job!

[@oneil9615]

Finally a new real good science channel. About the tungsten wire, you can sharpen it with a lighter, I think "the thought emporium" did it to replicate gecko tape. Incredible work, can't wait to see your next projects

[@klausnielsen1537]

This is so beautiful and well documented. I love it when i See people build on what others have learned or done. And this video? Sweet quality and a touch of humour 😊 SUBBED 🎉

[@ElizabethGreene]

Literally only one video on this channel and it's an absolute banger. 100/10, sir.

[@CardamomCake]

“3D printing a STM was harder then expected” I kinda find that a wild statement to make. I find it insane you succeed at all. Honored to be your 4 subscriber. Why didn’t you use gold for the tip? gold welds at normal conditions so it’s great for creating nano wires, not that I know if it’s actually good for this use case, but I’ve done quantum conductance experiments with it.

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

Glad you like it! Re STM tip material: Gold is very stable but it is too soft and cannot form a sharp tip point. Pt alloy is a better material due to its similar stability and often used in ambient STM. Unfortunately it is too expensive and outside my budget...

[@thomb.9013]

I was like, you're the 4th subscriber? then I checked how many subs he has, he has like not even 300 subscribers? I am shocked this really doesn't feel like something a small channel would do (I subscribed BTW this is epic)

[@communist754]

@@MechPanda-tt2gbyou can get a sharper tungsten tip if you oxidize it rather than mechanically deform it.

[@vladislavfateev7528]

holy shit that's insane, don't stop doing projects like this

[@TheChillieboo]

words cannot describe how much i love this! thanks

[@lilanedaria]

Incredible project. Is that your first ever KZbin video? Your filming and video editing skills are top notch. I look forward to your future videos and witnessing your success on KZbin

[@thaejsooriya3313]

This is awesome!! Love these kind of videos! Subscribed and looking forward to your next project!!😊

[@ProSureString]

This is fufing next level and absolutely amazing Outstanding job dude How are you not more popular???

[@Sugar3Glider]

I've been wanting someone to measure atominically with sound for awhile. This is amazing. Great job! 👏

[@Dillbeet]

Incredible project and your first upload! I’m looking forward to your next project

[@joshmyer9]

Hey, at least you live close enough to BART for it to be convenient for everything except operating an STM in your living room! This is great, thanks for sharing it. It showed up on my home page, so the algorithm seems to be smiling upon you. I hope this video gets the views it deserves!

[@Sokol_]

What a time to be alive ;) great work and can’t wait to see your next moves

[@leoberges1705]

I love it ! Wondered for a while if that was possible and you proved it in the best possible way ! Well done, you did such a nice work ! It opens a lot of possibilites :D

[@jasiumodrzynski861]

"was harder than I expected" haha I don't know at which point you thought that building a sub atomic microscope would be anything but hard ;) truly an outstanding project, I would have never expected that one could do this kind of machine with DIY methods, let alone produce results comparable with extremly costly commercial machines, that are produced by dozens of engineers with uncomparable resources. Once again - amazing job!

[@zyxwvutsrqponmlkh]

I made an AFM in my spare time in uni using a web cam and a trash cd drive. If there were broad appeal for this kind of instrumentation you would see them on sale for a couple hundred bucks like 3d printers.

[@capcloud]

i am always excited to find new channels worth subscribing to!

[@soccerkenshin]

Congratulations on building something amazing! Very inspiring

[@lucyhalut4028]

I’m absolutely blown away by what you’ve done here! Building a 3D-printed Scanning Tunneling Microscope that can literally see atoms from a home setup-this is the kind of thing that feels like science fiction, but you’ve made it real. This is pure genius! The creativity, the engineering, and the sheer determination it took to pull this off is nothing short of legendary. You didn’t just build something cool-you’ve pushed the boundaries of what we thought was possible with DIY science. It’s inspiring to see how your curiosity and persistence have led to such a groundbreaking achievement. You’ve set a whole new standard for what’s achievable with passion and ingenuity. I’m genuinely excited to see what comes next-this is the future, and you’re leading the way!

[@shawncalderon4950]

You deserve an honorary PhD! Awesome!

[@Wackylemon64]

The channel "Breaking Taps" created a tungsten wire electrode with a fine point via a chemical etching process. This is discussed at the timestamp 13:50 in a video about creating a camera sensor (not directly included to avoid the comment getting nommed). Hopefully this is helpful and helps with the reliability issue!

[@Wackylemon64]

The short of it, is to apply a voltage to the tungsten wire, the tip dipped in a solution of potassium hydroxide, to electrochemically etch it

[@BairdBanko]

Tungsten tips oxidize in air, you can only reliably use tungsten etched tips in an ultra high vacuum.

[@Wackylemon64]

@@BairdBanko What form factor for the tungsten tip would work best in the context of this STM? Is the "wedge" the only conformation which works, here?

[@BairdBanko]

@@Wackylemon64 Cut PtIr wire works pretty well in air because PtIr does not oxidize. You can etch PtIr, but it is more difficult because gas bubbles form on both the PtIr and the other electrode, so the nice tip formation that happens with tungsten does not happen as easily with PtIr.

[@NigelTolley]

You can do this by buying the stuff at any welding store - it's chemical sharpening of tungsten electrodes.

[@BirnieMac1]

This is incredible to see produced DIY

[@YevKli.D]

Respect from Kharkiv, Ukraine! 👏👏👏

[@gameozone3597]

This video is full of knowledge ❤love from India ❤

[@ElvisRandomVideos]

Great work man, thanks for sharing with the world!

[@hullinstruments]

Really hope you share more projects

[@Crappy.Consumer.Reports]

Sometimes I think I am smart and do cool stuff. This is so humbling.

[@zeus_labo_japan]

I'm not sure if you can understand what I'm saying here, it's been automatically translated from Japanese to English. *This is about the sharp needles used in atomic microscopes. I previously learned on a Japanese TV program that the world's sharpest needles for atomic microscopes are easily manufactured in a laboratory. It's very simple. A thin, hard metal wire is used. The tip of the wire is fixed to a weight, and the fixed wire is submerged in a glass container filled with electrolyte. The wire is fixed in two places. It is fixed in the electrolyte in the main container, and the wire is pulled both up and down with moderate force by a fixture that holds it straight above the electrolyte and in the air. When an electric current is then passed through the electrolyte and the wire, heat is generated at the boundary between the water surface and the wire melts in an instant. At the moment the wire melts, it is pulled on both sides, causing the heated metal of the wire to stretch, creating an extremely sharp needle with a tip the size of a single molecule. In other words, the moment the wire is heated by the electrolyte and melts and separates into two, a sharp tip is formed and the wire breaks off. That tip becomes the world's sharpest metal needle, the size of a single atom. Please use this as a reference and give it a try to make your own needle.

[@dratzer]

amazing, its inedible what you accomplished , i hope to see more in the future :)

[@buggi666]

at our institute we sometimes created the tips using a chemical etching process with a current flow detection to immediatly retract the tip when etching is done

[@GospodinJean]

Open source science rocks

[@jameskolby]

Thank you for the wonderful video! In the future, I'm definitely gonna have a crack at making an STM myself!

[@GoughCustom]

Amazing work! You mentioned you open sourced the design? Where can i find the files? Thanks!

[@adamsiwek7995]

It's one of those videos when you click like before watching. Thank you that goes on my to do list.

[@f1chtl]

Incredible work! I really like this side of KZbin.

[@Ben-ve4kf]

Amazing project and video! I didn't think it would be possible to get something this good with just 3D-printed parts. I think the tip is probably a major thing holding it back, there is a nice article and video on the "Zyrus Etcher" which might be a good fit for this project.

[@chemist97ful30]

Great project! Regarding the tips try to look into electrochemical etching to get a sharp tip pretty consistently

[@bjmcculloch]

Yes, I was wondering if that would be a better approach. I know it gets used for TIG, but don’t know how well it would work for STM tips.

[@zubrkabbi]

You missed an opportunity to use STM microcontroller to build an STM) Anyway, great video!

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

That's a good one!

[@verbalance5630]

This is high end DIY, I Love it! Very good Video, now I want tomake one, too 😂

[@Bob-jn8gt]

Absolutely incredible!

[@ssa7843]

Lovely 😍 would be great to see better how the platform moves around principle and how the closed loop needle is positioned

[@violentdesire7325]

"building an stm with 3d printed parts was harder than i expected."..no fucking shit. who would have thought. amazing work though, very hopeful there will be more content on this channel. cheers

[@nopel.]

The crash out at the beginning is crazy

[@NigelTolley]

Probably the first *3d printed* one, but certainly not the first. Edit: I'm not knocking! It's a stellar project.

[@varjagg]

Great job, and very cool damper design.

[@nictheobald5199]

This is incredible.

[@preste3]

I'm impressed. Learned a lot too.

[@DanielRichards-bb5vt]

MechPanda this is incredible

[@aaronleiter9009]

Awesome. Definitely worth a sub. 👍

[@ИлЕрма]

Genius !!! World need mire content !!!!!!!!!

[@MikaelIsaksson]

Epic. I have some plans to build a scanning electron microscope at home, but with a bit of a twist from a normal one. Just have hard finding time with children in the house :D

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

That will require High Vacuum and will be quite a project!

[@guillaume3d3]

Vraiment impressionnant ! Bravo 👏

[@thomasvnl]

Ignoring the STM, that magnetic dampener is pretty fucking cool. The STM as well of course :)

[@chopper3lw]

Ya that's brilliant.

[@ericchevalier74]

Thanks I was just looking for a cheap one of those 🤩

[@pranavcs22]

Brilliant stuff!

[@michazarzycki1634]

Ive only watched the first 2 miniues of your video and i wanna congratulate for explaing how tunnellung microspoce works in such clever and easy to understand way, much better than 4 of proffesors at my univeristy. They all use some 144p schematic image and pretend its so complicated that we probably cannot understand it so why even bother... Now i can watch the rest, thank you for your work.

[@rakshithsajjan6445]

Okay so when the scanner moves and creates an angle with the vertical, doesn't the distance between the scanner tip and the surface to be scanned change slightly?

[@pro100vald]

This is wonderful. I've never ever tought it's possible to diy such equipment! As somebody who works with AFM on a daily basis, I can assure you that most of the scans on actual scientific equipment are comparable in quality to yours. Btw, feel free to contact me if you want to get some samples scanned with scientific equipment.

[@char5444]

This is art.

[@greenishspacedude577]

That’s very impressive

[@meowme7644]

Thx 4 this early XMas present 🎁 😅 Very nice 👍 Merry Christmas 🎅 🎄 🐈🛷🎁🐾🐾💨

[@lithostheory]

Very cool result. How did you calibrate the magnification? Sometimes it can look like you're imaging individual atoms with STM, but what you're actually observing is a much larger scale moire pattern caused by a slight misalignment between the carbon layers in the graphite.

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

That is totally right! I did not have access to a calibrated sample so it is a bit hard to conclude.

[@RiceProfELEC571]

You can add additional vibration isolation by adding a more plates with viton o-rings in between on the base on the springs. Other fun air stable systems you can scan include MoS2 and TaS2 (though this one will slowly degrade in air after fresh cleaving).

[@Axolotroll]

hey, I feel bad bringing up the AI voice because you just built the most insane diy projects I have ever watch, and that is infinitely more deserving of attention than the voice, and I also see you did it because english isn't your native language which is fine for me... but the voice is a bit off-putting. I really hope this doesn't hinder your visibility, because again - the project is insane and I'm amazed you got something working in the end ! I subscribed snd am definitely looking forward to what'll be next :)

[@ExtantFrodo2]

Yeah, the content was so engrossing that I found it trivial to ignore the AI aspect of the voice. Great job MechPanda! 👍👍👍

[@RoterFruchtZwerg]

didn't even notice the voice is not real 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@SetKat-Alex]

What, it was an IA voice?

[@Tavdog]

​@@SetKat-AlexI was tipped of by how the voice said 3D and amperes.

[@Crappy.Consumer.Reports]

Agree 100%, it’s disrespectful to the hard work done here. Worth hiring a voice actor.

[@HappyShaurya]

a question plz don't mind thus this only work on substances that conduct electricity like metal and graphite or it could work with silicon and other elements

[@peterwookie7779]

Your idea for piezo control can be applied for a fine control stage to laser projection systems by gluing a mirror to the surface. I've got to give this a try!

[@thevoidedwarranty]

I always wanted to make one .great video

[@sapiosuicide1552]

Incredible!

[@peteabc1]

I think to make the needle you're supposed to strongly pull the wire so that it tears (also try annealed copper wire). Steel springs aren't that dampening, they're used in analog audio reverbs. Try rubber strips. Also I remember that burning a graphite rod with electric current creates a supersharp needles. But carbon has hexagonal molecules so that's a problem..but it's easy to do, so worth trying.

[@vergens4047]

It‘s amazing how you managed to build one at home using 3D printed materials and getting such great images and atomic resolution! How much did the materials cost you?

[@sunday.nobody]

great work!

[@minhenes]

I saw colleagues making W tips from wire electrolysis. they put a ring electrode around W wire in liquid and it got etched untill lower part dropped down to bottom. Then stopped current and tip was produced

[@TheCptEd]

Phenomenal work

[@fgbhrl4907]

would placing the STM in a temperature controlled 'oven' be a good way to deal with thermal expansion issues? Maybe at ~30degC for instance (above room temperature). That way HVAC / room variation doesn't affect things.

[@Nexalian_Gamer]

It's crazy how stuff we thought could only be accomplished in a lab is now being done by people in their own house using common equipment. It's only a matter of time until someone figures out how to make something like night vision tubes in their own garage.

[@jbcola74]

the piezo actuators could be used to move a laser dot very precisely over a long distance, maybe to project an image using a mirror on the piezo ?

[@noreezy4991]

if you want to understand the cost associated with laboratory precision instruments.... here is a little anecdote. i once tried to price a *used* 600mhz NMR. the dewer/primary superconducting magnet assembly (the most "immediate" visually identifiable part) - $3,000 the air assisted spinning sample probe - $1500 the supeerconductive RF pickup/probe - $1500 the "NMR cabinet" (other names exist), which looks like a generic "box of electronics", usually standalone (to mount it far from the NMR and the pesky human user ) $80,000 its ALWAYS the electronics, with the software/control sometimes 2nd

[@Konecny_M]

The main problem with old second hand NMRs is actually in getting the magnet back up and running, all other costs are secondary to that. The liquid helium is very expensive, no technician will guarantee you that it won't quench sporadically the first three or four times (and it does tend to happen), feeding the outer dewar with LN2 and topping off the helium once in a while is also considerable opex that puts it way out of realm of hobbyist tinkering.

[@irkedoff]

Awesome ❣️

[@daverowntree5221]

Could you please update your video description to include the links to the reference blog you mention as well as the links to your open sourced design data?

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

Will do! KZbin does not allow me to link to external link for now....

[@3DNaGrani]

Большое спасибо за видео! Это именно тот контент, которого мне не хватает в KZbin. Хотелось бы видеть масштаб на изображениях. Я думаю, это нетрудно сделать, когда для движения используются шаговые двигатели.

[@SianaGearz]

Stepper motor is only used for Z positioning. XY movement is all from the piezo actuator. Unfortunately, i don't think stepper platform is viable, a single step off a stepper will be much larger than the scanning field. So stepper couldn't be used to calibrate the piezo movement.

[@hamjudo]

The piezo does the fine motion in 3 dimensions. The stepper brings the sample close to the tip along a very slight arc, not straight along the z axis.

[@thiagopaulino8359]

amazing job

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

I'm glad you like it

[@2xKTfc]

The electromagnetic damper seems like it would feed the BART's vibration back into the platform thanks to induction. Also, a question: When you ground the copper shielding... don't you vice versa feed all the noise from everything else attached to your house's ground (computer, AC, fridge, you name it) into the system?

[@lorlimann]

This is amazing! But to cosplay as reviewer 2: your images should include a scale, so we can compare the different resolutions

[@MechPanda-tt2gb]

😂that is true

[@stefanguiton]

Excellent

[@23lkjdfjsdlfj]

Well done!