Experimental aspects of measuring dissipation on atomic scale using large-a
mplitude dynamic force microscopy are discussed. Dissipation versus distanc
e curves reveal that long- and short-range forces contribute to the dissipa
tion. The decay length of short-range contributions is found to be close to
that of the tunneling current. The dependence of dissipation on the bias v
oltage and on the oscillation amplitude is presented. Atomic-scale lateral
variations of dissipation are discussed; and the role of the atomic constit
ution of the tip for quantitative results is pointed out.