= Solution
An attached particle changes the effective tip shape, potentially creating a second contact apex. The image can then show duplicated or broadened copies of surface features, shifted edge positions and altered apparent roughness: a <double-tip artefact> or more general <AFM tip-convolution artefact>. Detachment can produce a sudden line-to-line change in that image kernel, so a region may abruptly recover a sharper profile. A change that follows the probe state or scan history should not be interpreted as a real reconstruction of the semiconductor surface.
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