The general principles of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) will be presented and their application to image interpretation will be discussed. The particular problems that may arise from the three dimensional nature and from the complexity of the tunneling system in the case of supported carbon nanotubes will be considered. An overview of the milestones of STM and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) experiments poerformed on carbon nanotubes will be given, with particular emphasis on the questions related with atomic resultion imaging, the influence of the two tunneling gaps (tip/nanotube; nanotube/support) and point contacts during imaging. Experimental STS results on multiwall carbon nanotubes and rafts of nanotubes will be discussed and compared to computer simulations based on wave packet dynamics.
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