This is a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) image of an array of 9 C₆₀ molecules on a silicon surface (see the Nottingham Nanoscience group's home page for further details). To give you an idea of scale the C₆₀ molecules are approximately 1 nm in diameter. The STM is a remarkable instrument (discussed in detail in Sections 7 and 8 of this module) that enables not only the visualisation of surface structure at the atomic level but also the manipulation of individual atoms and molecules. The molecular array in the image was created by pushing individual molecules across the surface using the STM.

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