Influence of atomic force microscope tip-sample interaction on the study of scaling behavior

Images acquired with atomic force microscopy are based on tip-sample interaction. It is shown that using scanning probe techniques for determining scaling parameters of a surface leads to an underestimate of the actual scaling dimension, due to the dilation of tip and surface. How much we underestimate the scaling exponent depends on the shape and aspect ratio of the tip, the actual fractal dimension of the surface, and its lateral-vertical ratio. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics