(Model 95-50 E Manufactured by DME)

SPM is a general expression for many techniques such as AFM, STM, MFM, LFM, that scan the surface of specimen with nanometer or less than angstrom resolution. In these techniques, the surface is scanned with a probe that processes the signal achieved from the probe giving the picture of the surface.

There are two most common scanning probe techniques:

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) measures the interaction force between the tip and surface. The tip may be dragged across the surface, or may vibrate as it moves.  The interaction force will depend on the nature of the sample, the probe tip and the distance between them.

Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) measures a weak electrical current flowing between tip and sample as they are held a very distance apart.

Some preferences of SPM from EM:

- In SPM , magnification and resolution is better than EM

- SPM operates without vacuum

- It can work in room pressure, vacuum and even beneath water

Unlike electron and optical microscopes, it can measure different other physical effects.

SPM has been used for measurements on a wide variety of sample types in any branch of science such as: metallurgy, physics, biology, chemistry, pharmacology …