The Open Materials Science Journal
2009, 3 : 50-55Published online 2009 June 19. DOI: 10.2174/1874088X00903010050
Publisher ID: TOMSJ-3-50
The Working of the Atomic Force Microscope for Chemical Mapping
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama 6 Rd., Rajchataywee,
Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
ABSTRACT
Since the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) in 1981 and the atomic force microscope (AFM) in 1986, over 5,000 publications have cited the article “Atomic Force Microscope” by G. Binnig, C.F. Quate, and C. Gerber (published in Physical Review Letters, 1986). This article presents a short review on the operating principle and possible applications of AFM with special attention devoted to chemical mapping. The article would be useful for beginners in AFM technique.