UNAM, through the Institute of Physics, is home to the first ultra high vacuum and low temperature tunneling microscope (STM LT-UHV), designed entirely by university researchers. After seven years of work and the experience of researcher Carlos Javier Villagómez Ojeda, this year it was inaugurated.
The device will allow the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules on surfaces to study molecular machines, nanostructures at the atomic scale, electronic transport in organic molecules, as well as study the inter and intra molecular forces that determine the organization of molecules on surfaces.
According to Dr. Villagómez Ojeda, the STM LT-UHV microscope not only gives way to the investigation of molecular machines (or functionalized molecules), but also opens the gap for the creation of scientific infrastructure in our country.
Although its applications are still in the basic science stage, in which it is still necessary to study and understand each phenomenon, Villagómez Ojeda does not rule out future uses that benefit the various industries of our country.
“Mainly in the materials coating industry it is quite interesting, because we, in these ultra-high vacuum conditions, we can evaporate or we can create very thin films that can normally be one monatomic layer or two monatomic layers, applications are also envisioned in the development of organic electronics ”.
Made at UNAM
The STM LT-UHV microscope (Scanning Tunneling Microscope Low-Temperature-Ultra high vacuum) reaches temperatures of up to 4 kelvin (-269.15 ºC) and is designed with stainless steel chambers and materials of the highest purity that allow it to reach “extremely” low pressures to perform experiments in ultra-clean conditions (Ultra High Vacuum).
For Villagómez Ojeda, this is an achievement that will allow university students to be motivated to create their own research instruments.
“The challenges that we have is that, sometimes, we do not have all that infrastructure that we have abroad, but by making our own equipment, the students also go from having not only theoretical knowledge, but to putting much of their knowledge into practice with state-of-the-art infrastructure ”.
Villagómez Ojeda, has worked at the Center for Materials and Structural Studies (CEMES-CNRS) in France; at the Free University of Berlin and at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Germany. In this sense, his scientific career has allowed him to build an infrastructure for research.
"Now the challenge is precisely that we can generate that type of infrastructure in our country, and I believe that UNAM has the elements to generate that type of infrastructure," concludes the university researcher. +
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