Local detection of X-ray spectroscopies with an in-situ AFM

The in situ combination of Scanning Probe Microscopies (SPM) with X-ray microbeams adds a variety of new possibilities to the panoply of synchrotron radiation techniques. In this paper we describe an optics-free AFM/STM that can be directly installed on synchrotron radiation end stations for such combined experiments. The instrument can be used just for AFM imaging of the investigated sample or can be used for detection of photoemitted electrons with a sharp STM-like tip, thus leading to the local measure of the X-ray absorption signal. Alternatively one can can measure the flux of photon impinging on the sharpest part of the tip to locally map the pattern of beams diffracted from the sample. In this paper we eventually provide some examples of local detection of XAS and diffraction.