Scanning Probe Microscope

A scanning probe microscope does not use light or electrons, but rather very sharp probes (2-10 nm) that are passed over the surface of the specimen and interact with it directly. This produces information that can be assembled into images with magnifications up to 100,000,000⨯. SPM is an extremely useful tool that is utilized in numerous research settings ranging from chemistry and materials to biological sciences. In addition to imaging surfaces with nanometer resolution, SPM can also be used to determine a variety of properties including: surface roughness, friction, surface forces, binding energies, and local elasticity. There are two primary forms of SPM: Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM).