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Progress in high resolution atomic force microscopy in biology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 March 2009

Zhifeng Shao
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics, and Biophysics Program, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Box 440, Charlottesville, Virginia 22008
Jie Yang
Affiliation:
Department of Molecular Physiology & Biological Physics, and Biophysics Program, University of Virginia School of Medicine, Box 440, Charlottesville, Virginia 22008

Extract

The atomic force microscope (AFM) was invented by Binnig, Quate and Gerberless than 10 years ago (Binnig et al. 1986). In their first prototype, a piece of goldfoil was used as the cantilever, with a crushed diamond tip mounted at the end. On the back of the cantilever, a tunnelling junction was used to monitor the deflection of the cantilever (the gold-foil) when the specimen was scanned with the tip in contact with the surface. Thus, the surface topography of the specimen was obtained with a resolution critically dependent on the sharpness of the tip provided the deformation of the specimen was not serious. Even with such a crude set-up, they managed to obtain a lateral resolution of ˜ 30 Å and a vertical resolution of better than 1 Å on an amorphous A12O3 surface. The operating principle of such an instrument is deceptively simple. However, such an arrangement was inconvenient for routine operations and unsuitable for imaging hydrated specimens, because the tunnelling junction is easily contaminated in air and works poorly in aqueous solutions (Alexander et al. 1989). As a result, the application of this type of AFM to biological samples was rare (Engel, 1991).

Information

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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