There remains two basic axioms of all microscopists: the first….if you look, you're bound to see something, and the second….not everything you will see is artifact. These axioms apply particularly well to scanning probe microscopy at the molecular and atomic level. Fortunately, coarser resolution images share comforting similarities with images from other established scanning methods. Holes in optical discs look like holes when probed with AFM tips, and these holes look very much like SEM images, a subject with which we have some familiarity. At the molecular and atomic level, however, the scanning probe instruments may or may not be “seeing” the sample, though they are clearly seeing something.

Comparison of surface structure observed with indirect surface structural measurements, for example by LEED (Low Energy Electron Diffraction) or RHEED (Reflection High Energy Electron Diffraction) usually under ultra-high vacuum conditions can lead, by inference, to an understanding of the real bulk or average surface structure.