Scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) primarily use a sharp probe that scans the surface of a specimen to provide information about its topography and other properties at the nanometer scale. The technology behind SPMs does not rely on laser light, lenses, or ultraviolet light in the same way that optical microscopes do.
Instead, SPMs operate based on the interaction between the probe and the surface of the sample, measuring forces such as van der Waals forces, electrostatic forces, or tunneling current, depending on the specific type of scanning probe microscopy used (e.g., atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)).
Therefore, none of the given options (Laser light, Concave lenses, Ultraviolet light, Convex lenses) are applicable as primary technologies behind scanning probe microscopes. The correct answer would be to focus on the probe technology rather than optical components.
1 answer