This work employed scanning probe microscopy (SPM) to study mass transport in the liquid-like layer (LLL) ice surfaces. Rapid healing of the damaged ice surface that took place only in the presence of the LLL was recently observed. This indicates that the LLL is responsible for the surface healing. Simple modeling shows that the healing rate is proportional to the LLL thickness cubed and inversely proportional to the film's viscosity. Thus an experimental study of the healing can provide valuable information on the physical parameters of the LLL.

Pure distilled deionized water, with a specific resistivity of 18.1 MΩ•cm, was used to grow ice crystals. The crystal surface was then prepared for scanning force microscopy (SFM) by either flattening using a microtome machine or flattening with the microtome machine and polishing gently using optically smooth clean quartz plates.