2023-06-06 22:00:00
The appearance in 1982 of the scanning tunneling microscope constituted a revolution in the field of microscopy by introducing the concept of near-field microscopy which is the basis of scanning probe microscopes. Different in principle from traditional microscopy, local probe (or near-field) microscopy is in fact developed from scientific and technical advances in scanning tunneling microscopy. All using the scanning of a probe tip near a sample, they provide images that are very high resolution maps of specific properties of the sample surface depending on the type of probe used. Various properties (structural, electronic, chemical, optical, etc.) and their local variations at the nanometric or sub-nanometric scale can thus be imaged and studied. Thanks to their high resolving power, scanning probe microscopy sheds new light and complements conventional microscopy for studying matter down to the atomic scale.
In the 2020s, after several decades of development, many research laboratories and industry are using these observation and analysis instruments. They make it possible to study the local properties of surfaces (or interfaces) under very varied conditions depending on the applications: ultrahigh vacuum for the physicochemistry of surfaces, liquid medium for biology and electrochemistry, controlled atmosphere for all kinds of materials and for metrology. Table 1 non-exhaustive list of near-field microscopes that allow access to local properties characteristic of a sample.
These surface characterization instruments were first diverted to become nanoscale engraving tools (manipulation of surface atoms, fabrication of nanoscale structures, pattern engraving). Currently, for applications in biotechnology and nanofluidics, some microscopes have the ability to locally deposit atoliters (10–18 liter) of fluid that may contain objects.
There is an abundant literature and many review works on scanning probe microscopy. In this article, we will only identify the main characteristics of these instruments and illustrate the many fields of application in different fields of physics, biology, metrology and nanotechnology. After describing the general principle of a scanning probe microscope and its operation, we will focus on studying the first microscopes in more detail. For each instrument we will show the impacts in fundamental research (physics, chemistry and biology), metrology and technology. We will thus deal with scanning tunneling microscopy and its applications. The atomic force microscope, more versatile and more universal, has been the subject of many developments and we will devote a large paragraph to historical and more recent modes. A last paragraph will focus on optical near field microscopy and its applications. General instrumentation issues common to these microscopes will be addressed at the end of the article.
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