MAXIMUM-ENTROPY DECONVOLUTION OF AFM AND STM IMAGES

The Maximum Entropy Method (MEM) has been applied successfully to the deconvolution of images obtained by Atomic Force (AFM) and Scanning Tu nneling Microscopy (STM) using a NanoScope III system. The images have been taken on graphite (STM) and NaCl (AFM) substrates. Image process ing has been performed running the Cambridge MaxEnt Fortran 77 library MEMSYS-5 on an IBM RISC 6000/360. Among the possible hypotheses the o ptimal solution was selected using the standard entropy method. ICF an d response function have been generated artificially to fit the correl ation of physical structures for atomically reserved images. Compariso n of MEM and FFT revealed, that the main advantage of MEM is its abili ty to reproduce atomic defects on regular structures, whereas FFT deco nvolution tends to eliminate these perturbations.