A FLEXIBLE IMPLEMENTATION OF SCANNING PROBE MICROSCOPY UTILIZING A MULTIFUNCTION SYSTEM LINKED TO A PC-PENTIUM CONTROLLER

A flexible electronic setup on a PC platform and the software implemen tation in Windows Microsoft environment, for a multipurpose head for s canning probe microscopy (SPM), has been developed. The integrated, mu ltiapplication data acquisition system is linked to a PC-Pentium contr oller, through a digital I/O board, and consists of: (i) an asynchrono us acquisition for real time removal of following error from SPM image s; (ii) a three-axes, computer controlled micropositioning stage; (iii ) software for electronic control, data acquisition, and graphics elab oration performed through subroutines of Visual Basic (Visual Basic Pr ogramming System Professional edition for Windows is a registered trad emark of Microsoft Corporation, USA.), and PV-WAVE personal edition. ( PV-WAVE Personal edition for Windows is a registered trademark of Visu al Numerics, USA.) (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.