Scanning tunnelling microscopy is a widely used technique in surface science, famously enabling one to 'see atoms' on a surface.

The Warwick Surface Science Group uses three STM systems, one operating in air or an electrochemical cell and two operating in ultra-high vacuum. Both the UHV microscopes are commercial instruments from Omicron Nanotechnology. The Omicron STM-1 on the MADGEneto MBE system is driven by a controller and software from Nanograph Systems.

A few slides on STM are collated in this PDF file, taken from a lecture on scanning probe techniques for semiconductor analysis.

My collaborative work with Dr. Tsukamoto in the University of Tokyo involves the use of a unique STM system in which the microscope is fully integrated with a III-V MBE system. It is capable of scanning with atomic resolution during the growth of GaAs and InAs - this capability is unique worldwide. The system was featured in the 2005 edition of Pico, Omicron's newsletter.