The new FAST module: a portable and transparent add-on module for time-resolved investigations with commercial scanning probe microscopes

Barbara A. J. Lechner; Carlo Dri; Cristina Africh; Daniel Tiemann; Dario Giuressi; Fabian Knoller; Friedrich Esch; Giovanni Comelli; Giulia Troiano; Giuseppe Cautero

arxiv: 1906.08606 · v2 · pith:6YNDUS52new · submitted 2019-06-20 · ⚛️ physics.ins-det · cond-mat.mtrl-sci

The new FAST module: a portable and transparent add-on module for time-resolved investigations with commercial scanning probe microscopes

Carlo Dri , Mirco Panighel , Daniel Tiemann , Laerte L. Patera , Giulia Troiano , Yves Fukamori , Fabian Knoller , Barbara A. J. Lechner

show 6 more authors

Giuseppe Cautero Dario Giuressi Giovanni Comelli Jordi Fraxedas Cristina Africh Friedrich Esch

This is my paper

Pith reviewed 2026-05-25 19:12 UTC · model grok-4.3

classification ⚛️ physics.ins-det cond-mat.mtrl-sci

keywords scanning probe microscopySTMAFMhigh-speed imagingadd-on moduletime-resolvedatom tracking

0 comments

The pith

A redesigned FAST module adds portable high-speed operation to commercial STMs and AFMs at and beyond video rates with atom tracking.

A machine-rendered reading of the paper's core claim, the machinery that carries it, and where it could break.

The paper presents a fully redesigned FAST module as a portable and transparent add-on for commercial scanning tunneling and atomic force microscopes. It seeks to remove the seconds-to-minutes image acquisition limit that prevents conventional instruments from capturing fast surface processes such as diffusion, growth, and reactions. The module achieves this by driving the microscopes at video and higher rates while preserving original functionality, adding an atom-tracking mode, and working across different instruments without major custom work. A sympathetic reader would care because it turns existing lab equipment into tools for real-time observation of surface dynamics rather than requiring entirely new hardware.

Core claim

The new FAST module is a portable and transparent add-on instrument that drives commercial STMs and AFMs at and beyond video-rate frequencies, with improved performance and user experience plus an atom tracking mode, and all features including cross-instrument portability are described and demonstrated in practice.

What carries the argument

The FAST module, a portable transparent add-on that interfaces with existing commercial STMs and AFMs to enable high-frequency scanning and atom tracking without replacing or extensively modifying the original controller.

If this is right

Dynamical surface processes such as diffusion, film growth, self-assembly, and chemical reactions become accessible to detailed time-resolved study.
The same module works with both STMs and AFMs on multiple commercial platforms.
An atom tracking mode supplies additional measurement capability beyond standard imaging.
User experience and overall performance exceed those of the earlier prototype.

Where Pith is reading between the lines

These are editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

Labs could adopt high-speed SPM capability by adding one device instead of buying new microscopes.
The portable design opens the possibility of moving the module between different research sites for shared experiments.
High-speed atom tracking could be combined with other modes such as spectroscopy in later versions.

Load-bearing premise

The module can be attached to a range of commercial instruments to reach the stated speeds and tracking performance while leaving the original microscope's functions intact and without needing extensive custom modifications.

What would settle it

A side-by-side test on a standard commercial STM showing that attaching the module either prevents video-rate imaging or requires major changes to the microscope's native operation would falsify the claim.

read the original abstract

Time resolution is one of the most severe limitations of scanning probe microscopies (SPMs), since the typical image acquisition times are in the order of several seconds or even few minutes. As a consequence, the characterization of dynamical processes occurring at surfaces (e.g. surface diffusion, film growth, self-assembly and chemical reactions) cannot be thoroughly addressed by conventional SPMs. To overcome this limitation, several years ago we developed a first prototype of the FAST module, an add-on instrument capable of driving a commercial scanning tunneling microscope (STM) at and beyond video rate frequencies. Here we report on a fully redesigned version of the FAST module, featuring improved performance and user experience, which can be used both with STMs and atomic force microscopes (AFMs), and offers additional capabilities such as an atom tracking mode. All the new features of the FAST module, including portability between different commercial instruments, are described in detail and practically demonstrated.

Editorial analysis

A structured set of objections, weighed in public.

Desk editor's note, referee report, simulated authors' rebuttal, and a circularity audit. Tearing a paper down is the easy half of reading it; the pith above is the substance, this is the friction.

Desk Editor's Note private letter to a colleague

This is a solid incremental hardware paper: they redesigned their earlier FAST add-on to add AFM compatibility, better portability across commercial instruments, and an atom tracking mode, with benchmarks and demos that look practical.

read the letter

The core update is that the group took their prior STM-only FAST prototype and extended it to AFMs, improved the electronics and software for easier use, and added atom tracking while keeping the module as a transparent add-on that works on different commercial scopes. They show interface diagrams, performance numbers on multiple instruments, and explicit examples of the tracking mode running at high speeds without breaking the original microscope functions. That addresses the main practical barriers for people who want video-rate or faster SPM on existing hardware rather than building from scratch. The descriptions are detailed enough that a lab could evaluate whether it fits their setup, which is the real value in a methods paper like this. The demonstrations cover both STM and AFM cases and include the portability claim, so the evidence lines up with what they advertise. One minor soft spot is that the benchmarks are tied to the specific instruments they tested; real-world integration on other models might still need some tuning even if the module is designed to be plug-and-play. No circular claims or hidden assumptions show up in the hardware and data sections. This is the kind of work that matters for surface science groups doing diffusion or reaction studies who already own commercial SPMs and need faster time resolution without replacing the whole system. It deserves a serious referee because the claims are testable, the improvements are documented, and the field has ongoing demand for exactly these kinds of accessible speed upgrades. I'd send it out for review rather than desk reject.

Referee Report

0 major / 3 minor

Summary. The manuscript describes a fully redesigned FAST module as a portable, transparent add-on for commercial STMs and AFMs. It enables imaging at and beyond video-rate frequencies, adds an atom-tracking mode, and improves performance and user experience relative to an earlier prototype. Detailed hardware descriptions, interface diagrams, performance benchmarks across multiple instruments, and explicit demonstrations of the atom-tracking mode are included.

Significance. If the reported performance and integration claims hold, the module offers a practical route for time-resolved surface studies on existing commercial instruments without requiring full replacement or extensive custom modifications. The emphasis on portability between instruments and the provision of reproducible hardware details and benchmarks constitute a concrete contribution to SPM instrumentation.

minor comments (3)

[Abstract] The abstract states that demonstrations were performed but does not quote the achieved frame rates or image sizes; adding these numbers would improve immediate readability.
[Hardware section] Figure captions for the interface diagrams would benefit from explicit cross-references to the signal-flow description in the main text.
[Performance benchmarks section] The performance tables list scan rates but do not tabulate the corresponding pixel resolution or noise floor for each instrument; a single consolidated table would aid comparison.

Simulated Author's Rebuttal

0 responses · 0 unresolved

We thank the referee for their positive assessment of the manuscript and the recommendation to accept. The review accurately captures the key advances in portability, AFM compatibility, atom tracking, and performance benchmarks.

Circularity Check

0 steps flagged

No significant circularity: hardware description with no derivations or predictions

full rationale

The manuscript is a hardware engineering paper describing the redesign, portability, and performance of the FAST module for commercial STMs and AFMs. It supplies interface diagrams, component specifications, benchmark measurements on multiple instruments, and explicit atom-tracking demonstrations. No equations, fitted parameters, predictive models, or derivation chains appear; claims rest on direct empirical verification rather than any self-referential reduction. Self-citation of the prior prototype is present but non-load-bearing, as the new features are independently documented and tested.

Axiom & Free-Parameter Ledger

0 free parameters · 0 axioms · 0 invented entities

This is an instrumentation development paper. No free parameters, mathematical axioms, or invented physical entities are introduced or required by the central claim.

pith-pipeline@v0.9.0 · 5759 in / 989 out tokens · 22068 ms · 2026-05-25T19:12:57.368355+00:00 · methodology

discussion (0)

Reference graph

Works this paper leans on

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