Combined X-ray-Atomic Force Microscopy Tools at the ESRF: The First 10 Years

In the last 10 years, the Surface Science Lab of the ESRF has developed four Atomic Force Microscopes (AFM) compatible with the sample environments of several X-ray beamlines 1 http://www.esrf.eu/UsersAndScience/Experiments/SciInfra/SurfaceSciLab Google Scholar]], the motivation being to combine many synchrotron-radiation-based techniques with in situ, real-time AFM. To this end, novel experimental techniques and operational schemes particularly adapted to the investigation of nano-sized materials were designed and tested. Several ESRF beamlines have been involved, including ID01, ID03, ID13, ID17, and BM05. This development was initially financed by the European X-Tip project STPR 505634-1 (2004–2008), and then by the French ANR-09-NANO-042 PIANHO Project (2009–2012).