Dedicated operations can be assigned to selected positions or patterns inside the scan frame, useful in nano-structuring or selective spectroscopy. Customer-designed command routines can be added to fit individual specifications. Complete measurement parameter sets are stored and recalled with simple commands. A measurement control GUI provides an easy way to manage the scanning activities of the instrument and scanning parameters, like gap voltage and feedback. Display modes can be selected individually for each scan in progress and windows can be added, removed, and assigned to other pre-selected channels during the scan.
Operators can easily load datasets by clicking on a thumbnail image of measured data.
Also, up to four channels of topographic data can be sampled simultaneously during scanning, and several data sets may be loaded and displayed at the same time to compare results. To gain the most insight into the acquired data, dedicated routines, written in IDL, provide essential image processing. Background removal by plane subtraction, exponential or polynomial surface fitting, and subtraction of mean values per line or column are now possible, each with a single command. The numerical values of any channel and for any lateral position are available with a single mouse click, and a Fourier transformation may be used for filtering and comparison. I would do the same again at any time.