Comment on "the long range voice coil atomic force microscope" [Rev. Sci. Instrum. 83, 023705 (2012)]

Abstract

In a recent article Barnard described the use of voice coil actuators to realize a large range scanner for probe microscopy. The results reported are interesting, but the idea is not new. In two preceding papers 1998, 1991 we had described a large coverage, wide dynamic range scanner based on homemade voice coil actuators, while Garcia Cantu and Huerta Garnica 1986 had already used inductive scanners for tunneling microscopy. Lamentably, none of these articles was cited by Barnard © 2012 American Institute of Physics.