The atomic force microscopy is increasingly being used in
analytical laboratories to study material surface phenomena.
Whereas its use is not free of artifacts itself, the AFM, because
of the ways it produces topography images, can shed some light
on problems associated with other analytical techniques. This
article describes the use of Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) in
visualizing and evaluating the extent of some well-known artifacts
produced by three techniques widely used in analytical
laboratories. The three different types of artifacts demonstrated
here are caused, respectively, (1) by a stylus profilometer
used for topography characterization of the pole tip area of
magnetic heads, (2) by an accumulation of an organic contamination
caused by a stationary electron beam positioned on an analyzed
surface during SEM/EDX analysis, (3) by an enhancement of
aluminum grain structure produced by a rastered monodirectional
sputtering ion beam during Auger depth profile analysis. The
analytical consequences of each of the presented artifacts are
discussed. The images were collected on the TOPOMETRIX TX 2000
“Discoverer” AFM, using standard 4-μm pyramidal
tips and forces within a few nanometers.