SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPE

摘要

A scanning probe microscope (100) has a probe (101) removably mounted in the head (108), using kinematic mounting techniques. A motorized, non-stacked x, y coarse movement stage (116) is kinematically positioned with respect to the base (114). A motorized z coarse movement stage (112) positions the head kinematically with respect to the base (114) and allows the height, tilt and pitch of the probe (101) to be adjusted. The scanner (118) includes x, y and z sample position detectors which provide an accurate measurement of the position of the sample with respect to the probe. The outputs of the x, y and z position detectors may also be connected in feedback loops with the controller (110) to improve the performance of the scanning probe microscope (100). An optical viewing assembly (124) provides combined coaxial and oblique views of the cantilever (102) and sample (104). A graphical user interface has simultaneous on-screen optical and scanning probe microscope views.