CNT tips have several potential advantages over silicon-based tips: (1) significantly larger Young’s modulus by approximately a factor of five, (2) much greater wear resistance, and (3) a geometrical advantage over conical silicon tips in that wear of cylindrical CNT tip would not necessarily degrade its lateral resolution.18 Additionally, CNT tips will buckle under excessive compressive loading. This characteristic has the advantage of reducing sample damage, but brings with it the disadvantage of buckling-related imaging artifacts, as will be illustrated later.