PyfastSPM: A Python package to convert 1D FastSPM data streams into publication quality movies

TL;DR

PyfastSPM is a Python package that efficiently converts 1D FastSPM data streams into high-quality movies, correcting for various artifacts and enabling quick batch processing for atomic-scale surface dynamics visualization.

Contribution

The paper introduces pyfastspm, a novel Python package that automates and accelerates the conversion of 1D FastSPM data into visual movies with artifact correction.

Findings

Efficient algorithms enable quick processing of large data batches.

The package corrects for tilt, noise, creep, and drift in the data.

High-quality, publication-ready movies are produced from raw data.

Abstract

In a continued quest to monitor subsecond surface dynamics on the atomic scale and to improve imaging resolution, a FAST module to accelerate existing scanning probe microscopy setups was previously presented. Hereby, the speedup is enabled by external electronics without modification of the actual instrument. The resulting one-dimensional (1D) data stream, recorded while the tip oscillates in a sinusoidal motion, has to be reconstructed into a layered rectangular matrix in order to visualize the movie. The Pythonbased pyfastspm package performs this conversion, while also correcting for sample tilt, noise frequencies, piezo creep, and thermal drift. Quick automatic conversion even of considerable batches of data is achieved by efficient algorithms that bundle time-expensive steps, such as interpolation based on Delaunay triangulation.