In this paper, we describe a new scanning technique for fast atomic force microscopy. In this method, the sample is scanned in a spiral pattern instead of the well established raster pattern. A spiral scan can be produced by applying single frequency cosine and sine signals with slowly varying amplitudes to the x-axis and y-axis of an atomic force microscope (AFM) scanner respectively. The use of the single tone input signals allows the scanner to move at high speeds without exciting the

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... cal resonance of the device and with relatively small control efforts. Experimental results obtained by implementing this technique on a commercial AFM indicate that high-quality images can be generated at scan frequencies well beyond the raster scans.