The Physics of Scanning Probe Microscopes -- SPM: The Instrument -- Theory of Forces -- Electron Transport Theory -- Transport in the Low Conductance Regime -- Bringing Theory to Experiment in SFM -- Topographic images -- Single-Molecule Chemistry -- Current and Force Spectroscopy -- Outlook.

Scanning Probe Microscopy provides a comprehensive source of information for researchers, teachers, and graduate students about the rapidly expanding field of scanning probe theory. Written in the style of a textbook, it explains from scratch the theory behind today’s simulation techniques and gives examples of theoretical concepts through state-of-the-art simulations, including the means to compare these results with experimental data. The book provides the first comprehensive framework for electron transport theory with its various degrees of approximations used in today’s research, thus allowing extensive insight into the physics of scanning probes. Experimentalists will appreciate how the instrument's operation is changed by materials properties; theorists will understand how simulations can be directly compared to experimental data.