The Nobel Prize of 1986 on Sc- ningTunnelingMicroscopysignaled a brand new period in imaging. The sc- ning probes emerged as a brand new - strument for imaging with a p- cision suf?cient to delineate unmarried atoms. At ?rstthere have been the ScanningTunnelingMicroscope, or STM, andtheAtomicForceMic- scope, or AFM. The STM depends upon electrons tunneling among tip and pattern while the AFM depends upon the strength performing on the end while itwasplacednearthesample.These have been speedy via the M- netic strength Microscope, MFM, and the Electrostatic strength Microscope, EFM.TheMFMwillimageasinglemagneticbitwithfeaturesassmallas10nm. WiththeEFMonecanmonitorthechargeofasingleelectron.Prof.PaulHansma atSantaBarbaraopenedthedoorevenwiderwhenhewasabletoimagebiological items in aqueous environments. At this aspect the sluice gates have been opened and amultitudeofdifferentinstrumentsappeared. There are signi?cant modifications among the Scanning Probe Microscopes or SPM, and others reminiscent of the Scanning Electron Microscope or SEM. The probe microscopes don't require coaching of the pattern they usually function in ambient surroundings, while, the SEM needs to function in a vacuum atmosphere and the pattern needs to be cross-sectioned to show the right kind floor. despite the fact that, the SEM canrecord3Dimage andmovies, featuresthatarenotavailable withthescanning probes. TheNearFieldOpticalMicroscopeorNSOMisalsomemberofthisfamily.At thistimetheinstrumentsuffersfromtwolimitations;1)mostoftheopticalenergy is misplaced because it traverses the cut-off area of the tapered ?ber and a couple of) the answer is insuf?cient for lots of reasons. we're con?dent that NSOM s with a cheap opticalthroughputandaresolutionof10nmwillsoonappear.TheSNOMwillthen enterthemainstreamofscanningprobes. VI Foreword within the Harmonic strength Microscope or HFM, the cantilever is pushed on the resonantfrequencywiththeamplitudeadjustedsothatthetipimpactsthesampleon each one cycle. Theforcesbetween tipandsample generate a number of harmonics inthe motionofthecantilever.Thestrengthoftheseharmonicscanbeusedtocharacterize thephysicalpropertiesofthesurface."