Accuracy of detected step heights.

<p>a: Mean deviations between calculated and true step heights of data set C. Only steps correctly identified by MSF (blue) or the method (red) are included. The error bars indicate the standard deviations. b: Number of steps detected by MSF vs. calculated step heights for white noise (green) and AFM noise (blue). The results for the method are drawn in red and the predicted histogram for white noise in gray. Independently of the step height, individual distributions can be clearly verified if they are sufficiently far away from each other (less than 5 pN for both types of noise). The colored AFM noise results in broader peaks.