Fast technique for AFM vertical drift compensation

The paper presents implementation and validation of a method for accurate imaging of three-dimensional surface topographies, developed for AFM metrology but in principle applicable to the whole family of scanning probe microscopes. The method provides correction of the vertical drift, and can be applied to any AFM scanner system, without need for modification of the instrument hardware. Surface correction is performed based on two topographies taken with mutually orthogonal scanning directions. Reconstruction is rapidly achieved through the use of an automatic routine developed for the purpose. The proposed method has been tested by using an optical and a silicon flat and a high precision cylindrical artefact. Examples of successful reconstructions on different samples are also reported within the paper.