Editing Atomic force microscopy (section)

===Other microscopy technologies===
The major difference between atomic force microscopy and competing technologies such as optical microscopy and [[Electron microscope|electron microscopy]] is that AFM does not use lenses or beam irradiation.  Therefore, it does not suffer from a limitation in spatial resolution due to diffraction and aberration, and preparing a space for guiding the beam (by creating a vacuum) and staining the sample are not necessary.

There are several types of scanning microscopy including SPM (which includes AFM, [[scanning tunneling microscope|scanning tunneling microscopy]] (STM) and [[near-field scanning optical microscope]] (SNOM/NSOM), [[STED microscopy]] (STED), and [[scanning electron microscopy]] and [[electrochemical AFM]], EC-AFM). Although SNOM and STED use [[visible light|visible]], [[infrared]] or even [[Terahertz radiation|terahertz]] light to illuminate the sample, their resolution is not constrained by the diffraction limit.