Editing Atomic force microscopy (section)

===History===
The AFM was invented by IBM scientists in 1985.<ref>{{Cite journal |doi = 10.1103/PhysRevLett.56.930|title = Atomic Force Microscope|year = 1986|last1 = Binnig|first1 = G.|last2 = Quate|first2 = C. F.|last3 = Gerber|first3 = Ch.|journal = Physical Review Letters|volume = 56|issue = 9|pages = 930–933|pmid = 10033323|bibcode = 1986PhRvL..56..930B|doi-access = free}}</ref> The precursor to the AFM, the [[scanning tunneling microscope]] (STM), was developed by [[Gerd Binnig]] and [[Heinrich Rohrer]] in the early 1980s at [[IBM Research – Zurich]], a development that earned them the 1986 [[Nobel Prize for Physics]]. Binnig invented<ref name="Biningpat" /> the atomic force microscope and the first experimental implementation was made by Binnig, [[Calvin Quate|Quate]] and [[Christoph Gerber|Gerber]] in 1986.<ref name="BinnigQuate1986" />

The first commercially available atomic force microscope was introduced in 1989. The AFM is one of the foremost tools for imaging, measuring, and manipulating matter at the [[nanometre|nanoscale]].