Combined Feedforward/Feedback Control of Atomic Force Microscopes

The atomic force microscope (AFM) is a powerful imaging and nanofabrication tool that allows the user to observe and manipulate samples at the atomic level. However, one limitation of current AFMs is the long time required to obtain a quality image of a sample. Several researchers have investigated this problem in recent years, and we give an overview of the approaches explored, including H_infin, lscr₁, and model-inverse based methods. We compare and discuss advantages and disadvantages of the various approaches, and we end with a summary of open questions to be addressed in improving the control of AFMs.