SPM-unit combined with optical microscope objective

A simple design of optical and scanning probe microscopes combination is presented. To scan in the (X,Y)-plane a common piezo tube is used, but to coarse approach the probe to a sample surface and to scan the probe along the Z-axis a special original design of the piezo-driver on the base of stack multilayer piezo-actuator is used. Two types of AFM probes (tuning fork with replacement W tip or Si piezoresistive cantilever) are used in the SPM-lens. Using special algorithm, the magnitude of the piezo driver step was automatically measured. The advantages of the device were demonstrated on the various test objects such as diffraction grid, CCD-matrix and polymer 2D-hologram.