What is Heinrich Rohrer most famous for?
I am most known for co-inventing the scanning tunneling microscope, or STM, along with my colleague Gerd Binnig. Our goal was to directly image surfaces at the atomic level, something that was previously very difficult. We were fascinated by the interaction of electrons with surfaces and explored how this could be used to 'see' individual atoms. It was a painstaking process, building and refining the apparatus, but the result was a tool that opened up a whole new realm of surface science and nanotechnology. Seeing those first clear images of atomic structures was immensely rewarding.
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