ABSTRACT
Since the emergence of the atomic force microscope (ATM) as
an extremely versatile tool for the direct hands-on manipulation
of nanometer-size specimens, there has been a surge of enthu-
siasm to extend its application to picometer-size materials [1].
Electron microscopy, X-ray crystallography, and other diffraction-
based methods have been widely used to explore the molecular-
and atomic-scaled world with fascinating accuracy, but what is
so exciting about AFMs and possibly STMs is that they allow the
scientist to figuratively “touch” individual atoms andmolecules with
the “fingertips,” since they are based on sensing direct interaction
forces between a probe and a sample. This is the reason they are
called “near field” microscopy as against the classical “far field”
microscopy.
