cell mounting is shown in fig1 the sample cell 106 is held onto the sample platform 90 by rods 142 which pull onto the surface of sample cell 106 by means of pins 144 the retaining force is obtained by compression of springs 146 which are compressed by screws 148 which are threaded into rods 142 rapid assembly is possible because the cell is mounted on rods 142 with the pins 144 removed the rods 142 are then pushed up from below so that the holes 150 for locating the pins 144 appear above sample cell 106 the pins 144 are pushed into place and the rods 142 allowed to fall back to a preset position other similar mechanisms are also possible as would be known to those of ordinary skill in the art this general arrangement of the sample platform makes the operation of changing samples extremely easy furthermore alignment of the stm and afm is greatly facilitated because a 34 dummy 34 or substitute sample platform may be clipped into place on the magnetic mounts prior to loading of the actual sample in this way the height of the tip or force sensing probe may be adjusted in advance so that no coarse adjustment of the gap between the sample and the probe is needed when the alignment platform is exchanged for the actual sample platform unlike the prior art which relies on screw adjusters located into kinematic groove cone and plane bearings for vertical alignment in this invention the adjustment of the gap is achieved with plungers that eliminate drift inherent in screws referring to fig1 plungers 92 are used only to replace the coarse approach screws of the prior art drift in the fine approach screw 152 attached to motor 108 is not as important.