Semiconductors, the major area of research in materials science, have offered solutions to several important technological problems and provided many devices for day to day applications. Development in novel semiconductor materials such as heterostructure systems and the ever-diminishing size of devices are producing an explosion of interest and activity in the field of semiconductor materials and devices. The characterization of epitaxial layers and their surfaces have benefited a lot from the enormous progress of micro and nanomechanical analysis techniques. In particular, the dramatic...