Scanning probe microscopy — principle of operation, instrumentation and probes

Abstract

Since the introduction of the Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM) in 1981 and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) in 1985, many variations of probe-based microscopies, referred to as Scanning Probe Microscopes (SPM), have been developed. While the pure imaging capabilities of SPM techniques are dominated by the application of these methods at their early development stages, the physics of probe-sample interactions and the quantitative analyses of tribological, electronic, magnetic, biological, and chemical surfaces have now become of increasing interest. In this chapter, we introduce various STM and AFM designs, various operating modes, various probes (tips), and AFM instrumentation and analyses.