From:
http://hackaday.com/2015/01/13/cheap-diy-microscope-sees-individual-atoms/

I used this kind of device. Can scan the surface at microscopic dimensions.
That's what the atoms look like in that picture?


Maybe just graphic representation of the results obtained after solving the Schrondiger equation.

 

I would say that's more like a picture of the shadow of the atoms than a picture of the atoms themselves.
But it's still a pretty amazing picture done with a do-it-yourself device.

 

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That's what the atoms look like in that picture?
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cool project - a home-brew STM...some similarities between his pic and those here

 

I would be wary of this conclusion. What is repeatedly done here? We apply a voltage to a conductor......then measure the voltage right before conduction. Sequentially. Are we measuring free charge over and over?

Is that scanned image pattern a true representation of the surface.........or the result of the measuring method? A measurement pattern?

Those dots represent voltage levels. Are the dots really all there like that at the same time?

Or only during measurement.

 

I would be wary of this conclusion. What is repeatedly done here? We apply a voltage to a conductor......then measure the voltage right before conduction. Sequentially. Are we measuring free charge over and over?

Is that scanned image pattern a true representation of the surface.........or the result of the measuring method? A measurement pattern?

Those dots represent voltage levels. Are the dots really all there like that at the same time?

Or only during measurement.

Something is there (atomic structure) for sure but the 'dots' are much like the flux lines we draw and calculate for EM forces interacting. Measurement requires energy so when we 'look' at something and 'see', it's because the energy state is changing by transformation. What we see is part measurement pattern (artifact of measure) and part true representation. Better instruments usually reduce measurement artifacts.

 

That the atoms to stay so nicely arranged should be crystal.

Then this crystal seems to be perfectly cut after one of the crystalline planes.
Not even an atom is above this plane - which seems hard to believe.

 

An atomic force microscope is much simpler than a non-expert wants to believe. He succeeded.