ABSTRACT
The rst member of the scanning probe microscope (SPM) family, the scanning tunneling microscope (STM), saw the light of day in 1982 [1], and earned the two protagonists, G. Binnig and H. Rohrer, a Nobel Prize. Shortly thereafter, the atomic force microscope (AFM) was demonstrated [2]. Since then the technologies and ideas that underpinned the initial developments have provided the inspiration for numerous additional related techniques, each capable of functioning in several different operational modes.
