The difference between atomic force microscope and optical microscope and electron microscope
The main difference between AFM and competing technologies such as optical and electron microscopy is that AFM does not use lenses or beams of light. Thus, it is not limited by spatial resolution due to diffraction and aberrations, and does not require preparation of space for directing the beam (by creating a vacuum) and staining the sample.
There are several types of scanning microscopes, including scanning probe microscopy (including AFM, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and near-field scanning optical microscopy (SNOM/NSOM), STED microscopy (STED), as well as scanning electron microscopy and electrochemical atomic force microscopy EC -AFM). Although SNOM and STED illuminate samples with visible, infrared, and even terahertz light, their resolution is not limited by the diffraction limit.
