title: Opportunities in high-speed atomic force microscopy.
abstract: The atomic force microscope (AFM) has become integrated into standard characterisation procedures in many different areas of research. Nonetheless, typical imaging rates of commercial microscopes are still very slow, much to the frustration of the user. Developments in instrumentation for "high-speed AFM" (HSAFM) have been ongoing since the 1990s, and now nanometer resolution imaging at video rate is readily achievable. Despite thorough investigation of samples of a biological nature, use of HSAFM instruments to image samples of interest to materials scientists, or to carry out AFM lithography, has been minimal. This review gives a summary of different approaches to and advances in the development of high-speed AFMs, highlights important discoveries made with new instruments, and briefly discusses new possibilities for HSAFM in materials science.
authors.affiliation: Bristol Centre for Functional Nanomaterials, Centre for NSQI, University of Bristol, Tyndall Avenue, Bristol, BS8 1FD, UK.
authors.forename: Benjamin P
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Loren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Picco
authors.forename: Mervyn J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Miles
authors.forename: Charl F J
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Faul
mesh_terms: D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000379:methods*
keywords: AFM lithography; atomic force microscopy; high-speed AFM; scanning probe microscopy; surface analysis