Ernst Meyer is Professor of Physics at the University of Basel and an expert in the field of atomic force microscopy. He has chaired European programmes for the study of nanotribology and is member of the executive board of the Swiss Nanoscience Institute. His research focuses on scientific questions in the fields of nanomechanics and nanoelectronics. Roland Bennewitz is Professor of Physics at Saarland University and group leader at the Leibniz Institute for New Materials (INM) in Saarbrücken, Germany. His main areas of expertise are high-resolution friction force microscopy, force microscopy of liquid-solid interfaces, and control of adhesion and friction by macromolecular functionalization or ionic liquids. He has chaired international conferences such are the Gordon Research Conference in Tribology 2014 and a Beilstein Symposium on Molecular Mechanisms in Tribology in 2016. He currently serves as on the Editorial Board of the Journal Tribology Letters. Hans Josef Hug is Professor of Physics at the University of Basel and laboratory head at the Empa - Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research in Dübendorf, near Zürich, where he leads the laboratory for Magnetic and Functional Thin Films. In 2003 he and his team received the Swiss Technology Award for the development of high resolution and quantitative magnetic force microscopy. His main areas of expertise are magnetism and magnetic thin film systems and scanning force microscopy with a particular emphasis on magnetic force microscopy.

Introduction to Scanning Probe Microscopy.- Overview.- Basic Concepts.- Introduction to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy.- Tunneling: A Quantum-Mechanical Effect.- Instrumental Aspects.- Resolution Limits.- Observation of Confined Electrons.- Spin-Polarized Tunneling.- Observation of the Kondo Effect and Quantum Mirage.- Force Microscopy.- Concept and Instrumental Aspects.- Relevant Forces.- Operation Modes in Force Microscopy.- Contact Force Microscopy.- Dynamic Force Microscopy.- Tapping Mode Force Microscopy.- Further Modes of Force Microscopy.- Force Resolution and Thermal Noise.- High-speed AFM.- Multifrequency AFM.- MFM and Related Techniques.- MFM Operation Modes.- Contrast Formation.- Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy.- Other Members of the SPM Family.- Artifacts in SPM.- Future Aspects of SPM.