Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abstract: In the last few years scanning probe microscopy techniques have gained significant importance in a variety of different research fields in science and technology. A rapid development, stimulated by the invention of the scanning tunneling microscope in 1981 and still proceeding at a high pace, has brought about a number of new techniques belonging to this group of surface analytical methods. The large potential of scanning probe microscopes is documented by over 1000 publications per year. Due to the fact that a number of different terms and acronyms exist, which are partially used for identical techniques and which are sometimes confusing, this article is aimed at classification and at an overview on the analytically most important techniques with clarification of common terms. Emphasis will be put on analytical evaluation of scanning tunneling and scanning force microscopy, as up to now these techniques have gained the highest importance for analytical applications.