Method of monitoring the shape of an atomic force (tunneling) microscope tip using backscattering spectrometry

A method is proposed to monitor the shape of an atomic force microscope tip, which can combine the operations of ion etching and shape monitoring, by using the intensity of the backscattering of ions from the same or a different beam to monitor the shape. Relationships have been obtained to monitor the shape of the probe using the measured dependence of the backscattering intensity on the parameters of the incident beam. Pis’ma Zh. Tekh. Fiz. 23, 88–92 (June 12, 1997)