Shear force microscopy

Definition: A type of microscopy which uses a sharp spike (known as a 'tip') mounted on the end of a cantilever to scan the surface of the specimen. The tip oscillates parallel to the surface. An image of the surface is obtained by mechanically moving the probe in a raster scan of the specimen, line by line, and recording the force experienced by the tip as a function of position. A feedback loop is used to maintain a fixed relationship between the tip and surface during scanning.

ID: CMO:0001923

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