The earliest direct observations and successful studies of surface diffusion of individual atoms used field ion microscopy. Information obtainable with field ion microscopy now includes diffusion parameters, energetics of various atomic processes, displacement and jump-length distributions, diffusion mechanisms, step effects, and adatom interactions. Material systems that could be studied were confined mostly to refractory metals. With the advent of scanning tunneling microscopy, surface diffusion could now be studied for a wider range of atoms and molecules, and material surfaces. As the surface area was also much larger, the methods that could be used were also more diverse.

An Historic Perspective of FIM and STM Studies of Surface Diffusion. T.T.Tsong: Materials Science and Engineering A, 2003, 353[1-2], 1-5