Individually injected current pulses during the operation of a conducting-tip tapping-mode atomic force microscope have been measured under a range of experimental conditions. The bias pulses, applied during the tip-sample contact time, did not perturb the tapping operations, and eliminated artifacts associated with displacement currents. The reproducible injection of current density pulses on the order of 10 μA/nm2 per tap can be applied to spreading resistance measurements and to storage applications employing, for example, phase change by Joule heating and magnetic switching by spin-polarized current.

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