Piezoelectric materials, scanning positioning techniques

Scanning probe microscopies have become the most conspicuous surface analysis techniques since their invention in the mid-1980s and the awarding of the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics [71. 72]. The basic idea behind these techniques is to move an extremely fine tip close to a surface and to monitor a signal as a function of the tip s position above the surface. The tip is moved with the use of piezoelectric materials, which can control the position of a tip to a sub-Angstrom accuracy, while a signal is measured that is indicative of the surface topography. These techniques are described in detail in section B1.20. 

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