Finding noise-related artifacts in scanned-probe microscope images

Le résumé fourni par la source

Scanned probe microscope images often contain structure which does not belong to the actual specimen. Some of this structure arises in time-domain instabilities of the microscope and its environment, some of it arises with imperfect attempts of the feedback loop to hold force or current constant, and some of it reflects tip (as opposed to specimen) structure. We illustrate here: (i) artifacts of the first kind, i.e. those which are independent of tip shape and which exist in the slow-scan limit, (ii) the way in which low-pass filtering can give such artifacts three-dimensional character, and (iii) tests involving Fourier phases and amplitudes in scanned probe images which can signal the presence of such artifacts. The first and best test for artifacts related to time-domain instability is simply to locate precisely the same feature in two micrographs, if possible taken with different scan speeds (e.g. at different magnfications). If the feature remains unchanged in structure and size, then it is unlikely to be a purely time domain artifact.

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