2003 Volume 1 Pages 102-105
An important function of microscopy is the chemical analysis of the sample. Chemical analysis with an atomic resolution microscope can mean two different things. First, for a sample of known composition or adsorbed species, it means distinguishing the chemical species from the atomic image. Second, for a sample of unknown composition, it means the identification of the chemical components from the atomic resolution image. Here I compare available methods of chemical identification in field ion microscopy (FIM) and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and report our progress in achieving true atomic resolution for a non-destructive chemical analysis of a sample surface using STM.[DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2003.102]