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Credit: Oscar Custance, Osaka University

A new type of atomic force microscope (AFM) has been developed that can "fingerprint" the chemical identity of individual atoms on a material's surface. This is one step ahead of existing AFMs, which can only detect the position of atoms. The device determines local composition and structure using a precise calibration method, and can even be used to manipulate specific atomic speciesThe team demonstrated their "fingerprinting" technique by using an atomic force microscope (AFM) to distinguish atoms of tin (blue) and lead (green) deposited on a silicon substrate (red).

[Chemical identification of individual surface atoms by atomic force microscopy, Yoshiaki Sugimoto, Pablo Pou, Masayuki Abe, Pavel Jelinek, Rubén Pérez, Seizo Morita and Óscar Custance, Nature 446, 64-67 (1 March 2007)]