Patent ID: 8850611

Claim:
A method of simultaneously analyzing topographic and elemental/chemical/magnetic data in a scanning tunneling microscope, comprising the steps of: providing an STM probe with a tip; providing an X-ray source and a beam chopper for generating chopped X-rays from the X-ray source and directing the chopped X-rays from the X-ray source onto a sample having a surface; generating a conventional tunneling current component from the X-rays interacting with the sample and directing the conventional tunneling current to a first channel; generating a second current from the X-rays interacting with the sample and including an elemental/chemical/magnetic characteristic current and directing the second current to a second channel; separating out the conventional tunneling current for analysis with a lock-in amplifier and filter; analyzing the conventional tunneling current to output topographic information about the sample surface; analyzing the second current to output elemental/chemical/magnetic information about the sample; and analyzing output from the lock-in amplifier by an instrumentation amplifier to determine difference between (a) total current arising from the X-ray beam interacting with the sample and (b) the second current wherein current input to the filter is operated on by the lock-in amplifier to remove components of the elemental/chemical/magnetic characteristic current, thereby enabling isolation of the topographic information in the first channel.