Premium
Opportunities in High‐Speed Atomic Force Microscopy
Author(s) -
Brown Benjamin P.,
Picco Loren,
Miles Mervyn J.,
Faul Charl F. J.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201203223
Subject(s) - atomic force microscopy , nanotechnology , instrumentation (computer programming) , lithography , microscope , nanometre , materials science , computer science , optics , physics , optoelectronics , composite material , operating system
Abstract The atomic force microscope (AFM) has become integrated into standard characterisation procedures in many different areas of research. Nonetheless, typical imaging rates of commercial microscopes are still very slow, much to the frustration of the user. Developments in instrumentation for “high‐speed AFM” (HSAFM) have been ongoing since the 1990s, and now nanometer resolution imaging at video rate is readily achievable. Despite thorough investigation of samples of a biological nature, use of HSAFM instruments to image samples of interest to materials scientists, or to carry out AFM lithography, has been minimal. This review gives a summary of different approaches to and advances in the development of high‐speed AFMs, highlights important discoveries made with new instruments, and briefly discusses new possibilities for HSAFM in materials science.