METHOD AND APPARATUS OF AUTOMATIC SCANNING PROBE IMAGING

摘要

A method of operating a scanning probe microscope (SPM) (10) includes scanning (36) a sample (22) as a probe (14) of the SPM (10) interacts with a sample (22), and collecting sample surface data in response to the scanning step (36). The method identifies (38) a feature of the sample (22) from the sample surface data and automatically performs a zoom-in scan (42) of the feature based on the identifying step (38). The method operates to quickly identify and confirm the location of features of interest, such as nano-asperities, so as to facilitate performing a directed high resolution image of the feature.