Atomic Force Microscopy: Is It Just an Imaging Technique?

Abstract

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), without any doubt can be named as one of the most sensitive imaging techniques which allows researchers to explore a broad spectrum of materials such as semiconductors, nanocrystals, biological materials, pharmaceuticals, polymers etc. AFM was first invented in 1986 by Gerd Binnig, Calvin Quate and Christoph Gerber to overcome the limitations of its ancestor, scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM).