Overview of Atomic Force Microscopy Greg Haugstad (original) (raw)
Related papers
Microscopy Today
Microscopy Today is a controlled-circulation trade magazine owned by the Microscopy Society of America that is published six times a year in the odd months. Editorial coverage spans all microscopy techniques including light microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, electron microscopy, ion-beam techniques, and the wide range of microanalytical methods. Readers and authors come from both the life sciences and the physical sciences. The typical length of an article is about 2,000 words plus figures and tables; feature articles are longer. Interested authors should consult "Instructions for Contributors" on the Microscopy Today website: www.microscopy-today.com.
Physical-mechanical image of the cell surface on the base of AFM data in contact mode
IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering, 2017
Physical and mechanical properties of the cell surface are well-known markers of a cell state. The complex of the parameters characterizing the cell surface properties, such as the elastic modulus (E), the parameters of adhesive (Fa), and friction (Ff) forces can be measured using atomic force microscope (AFM) in a contact mode and form namely the physicalmechanical image of the cell surface that is a fundamental element of the cell mechanical phenotype. The paper aims at forming the physical-mechanical images of the surface of two types of glutaraldehyde-fixed cancerous cells (human epithelial cells of larynx carcinoma, HEp-2c cells, and breast adenocarcinoma, MCF-7 cells) based on the data obtained by AFM in air and revealing the basic difference between them. The average values of friction, elastic and adhesive forces, and the roughness of lateral force maps, as well as dependence of the fractal dimension of lateral force maps on Z-scale factor have been studied. We have revealed that the response of microscale areas of the HEp-2c cell surface having numerous microvilli to external mechanical forces is less expressed and more homogeneous in comparison with the response of MCF-7 cell surface.
This paper presents a new volume visualization approach for three-dimensional (3-D) interactive microscopy data exploration. Because of their unique image characteristics, 3-D microscopy data are often not able to be visualized effectively by conventional volume visualization techniques. In our approach, microscopy visualization is carried out in an interactive data exploration environment, based on a combination of interactive volume rendering techniques and image-based transfer function design methods. Interactive volume rendering is achieved by using two-dimensional (2-D) texture mapping in a Shear-Warp volume rendering algorithm. Image processing techniques are employed and integrated into the rendering pipeline for the definition and searching of appropriate transfer functions that best reflect the user's visualization intentions. These techniques have been implemented successfully in a prototype visualization system on low-end and middle-range SGI desktop workstations. Since only 2-D texture mapping is required, the system can also be easily ported to PC platforms.
Aspects on the relief of living surfaces using atomic force microscopy allow “art” to imitate nature
2010
The visualization of the surface of biological samples using an atomic force microscope reveals features of the external relief and can resolve very fine and detailed features of the surface. We examined specimens from the skin of the amphibians Salamandra salamandra Linnaeus, 1758, Lyciasalamandra luschani basoglui and Mesotriton alpestris Laurenti, 1768, and from the surface of pollen grains of the plant species Cyclamen graecum Link, 1835 and Cistus salviifolius Linnaeus, 1753, which exhibit certain interesting features, imaged at the nanoscale level. It is likely that the relief influences the attributes of the interfaces between the tissues and the environment. We found that the microsculpture increases in size the surface of the examined tissues and this might be particularly important for their performance in the field. Microsculpturing of amphibians' skin may affect water regulation, dehydration and rehydration, and cutaneous gas exchange. Pollen grain relief might affect the firmness of the contact between pollen surface and water droplets. High resolution imaging of the external relief showed that roughening might induce wetting and influence the water status of the specimens. In addition, roughness affects the radius of water droplets retained in between the projections of the external relief. Roughness of the tissues was highly correlated with their vertical distance, whereas surface distances were highly correlated with horizontal distances. By enabling a more detailed characterization of the external sculptures, through sophisticated techniques, a more comprehensive examination of the samples indicates similarities among different living tissues, originated from different kingdoms, which can be attributed to environmental conditions and physiological circumstances.
Properties of Biomolecules Measured from Atomic Force Microscope Images: A Review
Journal of Structural Biology, 1997
AFM images can be used to obtain quantitative or qualitative information about the properties of biomaterials. Examples presented here are: (1) Persistence length measurements of moving and stationary DNA molecules. (2) Force mapping to measure properties such as the elasticity of cells and vesicles. (3) Phase mode imaging to detect variations in materials and properties of the sample surface. (4) Imaging of surfaces at different constant forces.
Extensible visualizer for atomic force microscopy
1990
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is a method for measuring the topological displacement of a microscopic surface. To create a displacement map of the surface, a cantilever with a very sharp tip is moved over the surface, while measuring the cantilever's vertical displacement. The surface position is adjusted horizontally to ensure the tip does not scratch through the material. An important problem in AFM is that the tips are never perfect so the output image is subject to error and distortion. For reasons described in this document, the nature of the contact means that it is often impossible to remove this distortion. This makes surface analysis more difficult as researchers may be unsure whether the source of a particular surface feature is due to the underlying surface topology or a distortion due to an imperfect tip. This work proposes and documents the development of an application that can be used to simulate the distortion effects caused by the interaction of the tip and the sample. This allows researchers to investigate a wide variety of tip-surface combinations to visually examine the kinds of distortion caused in order to derive the origin of the surface features. A selection of tools such as a probe and an area tool have been implemented to allow data extraction from the output surface, and new tools may be added easily to the application. To aid the analysis process, a 3D representation of the output was added to the application, allowing a researcher to see the surface from an angle of their choosing. This surface can be analysed quantitatively with the application's extensible toolset. With the successful completion of this application, it was extended to allow user-defined distortion filters to be added to the application, simulating any phenomena required. Not limited to AFM, this is of great use to other measurement systems subject to distortion effects such as optical or magnetic microscopy.
Revue Roumaine de Chimie, 2021
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) is a powerfull technique developed in the last decades that is widely used for surface morphology investigation at micro and nanometric scale. Along with the environment in which the scan is performed and the type of sample, the scanning conditions play an important role in obtaining the best results in imaging, without any artifacts that may be occure. In the present study, in order to establish the proper scanning conditions, smooth and rough polymer surfaces were used to investigate the influence of the scanning speed on height images and amplitude, hybrid, spatial, and functional 3D surface texture parameters in atomic force microscopy.