Patent 5559328 Issued on September 24, 1996. Estimated Expiration Date: July 29, 2014. Estimated Expiration Date is calculated based on simple USPTO term provisions. It does not account for terminal disclaimers, term adjustments, failure to pay maintenance fees, or other factors which might affect the term of a patent.
A sample and the tip portion of an alternating current scanning tunneling microscope are electrically enclosed within a cavity with electrically conductive walls. The dimensions of the cavity are smaller than the wavelength of a component of the AC signal applied by the probe to the sample so that the output signal detected by the probe from the sample will not be contaminated by resonant effects of the cavity.
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