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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 July 2020
In topographs produced by scanned probe microscopy, positive-going surface features are broadened due to the non-vanishing tip size. This well-known imaging artifact is of particular importance for feature width or surface microroughness determinations. Its correction requires a 3-d model of the tip.
Most proposed methods of tip estimation begin with the same set of experimental conditions and model assumptions. Experimentally, a special specimen (a “tip characterizer”) is imaged with the unknown tip. The image model assumes the image is formed by contact of the tip with the surface at one or more points without significant bending of the tip or compression of the surface. Under these circumstances, it has been shown1 that I = S ⊕ P, where S is the set of all points in the specimen, P a reflection of the tip through the origin, I the image, and ⊕ denotes dilation.