In modern experimental physics the pinhole camera is used when the creation of a focusing element (lens) is difficult. We have experimentally realized a method of image construction in atom optics, based on the idea of an optical pinhole camera. With the use of an atom pinhole camera we have built an array of identical arbitrary-shaped atomic nanostructures with the minimum size of an individual nanostructure element down to 30 nm on an Si surface. The possibility of 30 nm lithography by means of atoms, molecules and clusters has been shown.

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The absolute values of the force exerted by the fiber probe of a scanning near-field optical microscope onto the surface were measured using an atomic force microscope in ambient conditions. We demonstrate that a usually neglected static attraction force is dominant at small dither amplitudes and is of the order of 200 nN. The tapping component of the force, often referred to as shear force, is of the order of 1 nN at these conditions for both the tuning fork-based and optical in resonance detection schemes. Other peculiarities of the shear force interaction are also discussed.