The authors report on a study of detecting ricin molecules immobilized on chemically modified Au 111 surface by chemomechanically mapping the molecular interactions with a chemically modified atomic force microscopy AFM tip. AFM images resolved the different fold-up conformations of single ricin molecule as well as their intramolecule structure of Aand B-chains. AFM force spectroscopy study of ...

Three-dimensional atom probe tomography (APT) is successfully used to analyze the near-apex regions of an atomic force microscope (AFM) tip. Atom scale material structure and chemistry from APT analysis for standard silicon AFM tips and silicon AFM tips coated with a thin film of Cu is presented. Comparison of the thin film data with that observed using transmission electron microscopy indicate...

We present a custom-designed atomic force fluorescence microscope (AFFM), which can perform simultaneous optical and topographic measurements with single molecule sensitivity throughout the whole visible to near-infrared spectral region. Integration of atomic force microscopy (AFM) and confocal fluorescence microscopy combines the high-resolution topographical imaging of AFM with the reliable (...

We demonstrated the feasibility of analyzing cross sections of thin-film CdTe/CdS and CIGS/CdS solar cells using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The AFM images were compared with images obtained with the scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the correspondence was very good. We also used electrostatic force microscopy (EFM) [1] to image the distribution of the electrical potential on cross sec...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) operates on a very different principle than other forms of microscopy, such as optical microscopy or electron microscopy. The key component of an AFM is a cantilever that bends in response to forces that it experiences as it touches another surface. Forces as small as a few picoNewtons can be detected and probed with AFM. AFM has become very useful in biological sc...

Anatase is a pivotal material in devices for energy-harvesting applications and catalysis. Methods for the accurate characterization of this reducible oxide at the atomic scale are critical in the exploration of outstanding properties for technological developments. Here we combine atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), supported by first-principles calculations...

In order to visualize the atomic structure of materials in real space, a microscope with sub-nanometer resolution is needed. As such, breaking the resolution limit associated with the wavelength of visible light employed in traditional optical microscopy has been a long-standing dream of scientists around the world. This goal was finally reached in the early 1980s with the invention of the scan...

Both atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments and molecular dynamics (MD) simulation are carried out to investigate atomic stick-slip friction by sliding a Pt tip on an Au substrate. Efforts are taken to match the conditions for AFM experiment and MD simulation as closely as possible. The results show that AFM and MD provide consistent energetic parameters, which suggests that MD simulations c...

A method for sensing the dissipation occurring when a sharp atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip is oscillated laterally above a surface at distances typical of non-contact mode AFM operation is established and demonstrated. Dissipation is detected by measuring the damping of lateral resonant modes of the AFM cantilever, excited independently after the lateral resonant mode identification, when th...

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has evolved from the originally morphological imaging technique to a powerful and multifunctional technique for manipulating and detecting the interactions between molecules at nanometer resolution. However, AFM cannot provide the precise information of synchronized molecular groups and has many shortcomings in the aspects of determining the mechanism of the intera...