Which mechanism allows a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to image surfaces at the atomic level?

💡 Explanation

When a sharp tip nears the surface, quantum tunneling occurs because electrons have a non-zero probability of tunneling across the vacuum gap to the surface, even with no direct contact. Therefore quantum tunneling allows atomic level imaging, rather than optical diffraction, capacitive coupling, or magnetic resonance, which rely on different physical principles.

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