A numerically demonstration was given of the possibility that the presence of point defects within a sample could be reconstructed, from force gradient distributions measured using atomic force microscopy, by means of computer-aided tomography. By using Lennard-Jones potential calculation, it was predicted that a vacancy, even if in the third layer, could be observed via the experimentally measured force gradient. It was shown that that the depth of the vacancy could be determined by tomography by using just the attractive part of the force gradient distribution.

Simulated Computed Tomography for the Reconstruction of Vacancies using an Atomic Force Microscope Image R.Nishi, T.Ohta, Y.Sugawara, S.Morita, T.Okada: Japanese Journal of Applied Physics - 2, 1997, 36[10B], L1410-2