[Bone Cell Biology Assessed by Microscopic Approach. Micro- and nanomechanical analysis of bone]

For Stiffness, we have several ways, Vicker's, Nano Indentor and NanoIndentation with AFM. Recent study needs several nm, tens of nm scale lateral resolution. For this request, AFM supply new technology, PeakForce QNM®, is only way to measure sub molecular level modulus mapping. In this article, introduce several data and specially talk about bone modulus near osteocytic lacunae treated with PTH which is considering to resolve bone matrix around the osteocytic lacunae.

Opto-nanomechanical spectroscopic material characterization

The non-destructive, simultaneous chemical and physical characterization of materials at the nanoscale is an essential and highly sought-after capability. However, a combination of limitations imposed by Abbe diffraction, diffuse scattering, unknown subsurface, electromagnetic fluctuations and Brownian noise, for example, have made achieving this goal challenging. Here, we report a hybrid approach for nanoscale material characterization based on generalized nanomechanical force microscopy in conjunction with infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy. As an application, we tackle the outstanding problem of spatially and spectrally resolving plant cell walls. Nanoscale characterization of plant cell walls and the effect of complex phenotype treatments on biomass are challenging but necessary in the search for sustainable and renewable bioenergy. We present results that reveal both the morphological and compositional substructures of the cell walls. The measured biomolecular traits are in agreement with the lower-resolution chemical maps obtained with infrared and confocal Raman micro-spectroscopies of the same samples. These results should prove relevant in other fields such as cancer research, nanotoxicity, and energy storage and production, where morphological, chemical and subsurface studies of nanocomposites, nanoparticle uptake by cells and nanoscale quality control are in demand.

Tip Effect of the Tapping Mode of Atomic Force Microscope in Viscous Fluid Environments

Atomic force microscope with applicable types of operation in a liquid environment is widely used to scan the contours of biological specimens. The contact mode of operation allows a tip to touch a specimen directly but sometimes it damages the specimen; thus, a tapping mode of operation may replace the contact mode. The tapping mode triggers the cantilever of the microscope approximately at resonance frequencies, and so the tip periodically knocks the specimen. It is well known that the cantilever induces extra liquid pressure that leads to drift in the resonance frequency. Studies have noted that the heights of protein surfaces measured via the tapping mode of an atomic force microscope are ~25% smaller than those measured by other methods. This discrepancy may be attributable to the induced superficial hydrodynamic pressure, which is worth investigating. In this paper, we introduce a semi-analytical method to analyze the pressure distribution of various tip geometries. According to our analysis, the maximum hydrodynamic pressure on the specimen caused by a cone-shaped tip is ~0.5 Pa, which can, for example, pre-deform a cell by several nanometers in compression before the tip taps it. Moreover, the pressure calculated on the surface of the specimen is 20 times larger than the pressure without considering the tip effect; these results have not been motioned in other papers. Dominating factors, such as surface heights of protein surface, mechanical stiffness of protein increasing with loading velocity, and radius of tip affecting the local pressure of specimen, are also addressed in this study.

Experimental and Theoretical Investigations on the Nanoscale Kinetic Friction in Ambient Environmental Conditions

The liquid lubrication, thermolubricity and dynamic lubricity due to mechanical oscillations are investigated with an atomic force microscope in ambient environmental conditions with different relative humidity (RH) levels. Experimental results demonstrate that high humidity at low-temperature regime enhances the liquid lubricity while at high-temperature regime it hinders the effect of the thermolubricity due to the formation of liquid bridges. Friction response to the dynamic lubricity in both high- and low-temperature regimes keeps the same trends, namely the friction force decreases with increasing the amplitude of the applied vibration on the tip regardless of the RH levels. An interesting finding is that for the dynamic lubricity at high temperature, high-humidity condition leads to the friction forces higher than that at low-humidity condition while at low temperature the opposite trend is observed. An extended two-dimensional dynamic model accounting for the RH is proposed to interpret the frictional mechanism in ambient conditions.

Fast, multi-frequency, and quantitative nanomechanical mapping of live cells using the atomic force microscope

A longstanding goal in cellular mechanobiology has been to link dynamic biomolecular processes underpinning disease or morphogenesis to spatio-temporal changes in nanoscale mechanical properties such as viscoelasticity, surface tension, and adhesion. This requires the development of quantitative mechanical microscopy methods with high spatio-temporal resolution within a single cell. The Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) can map the heterogeneous mechanical properties of cells with high spatial resolution, however, the image acquisition time is 1-2 orders of magnitude longer than that required to study dynamic cellular processes. We present a technique that allows commercial AFM systems to map quantitatively the dynamically changing viscoelastic properties of live eukaryotic cells at widely separated frequencies over large areas (several 10's of microns) with spatial resolution equal to amplitude-modulation (AM-AFM) and with image acquisition times (tens of seconds) approaching those of speckle fluorescence methods. This represents a ~20 fold improvement in nanomechanical imaging throughput compared to AM-AFM and is fully compatible with emerging high speed AFM systems. This method is used to study the spatio-temporal mechanical response of MDA-MB-231 breast carcinoma cells to the inhibition of Syk protein tyrosine kinase giving insight into the signaling pathways by which Syk negatively regulates motility of highly invasive cancer cells.

Microcantilever based distance control between a probe and a surface

We demonstrate a method to control the distance between a custom probe and a sample on a μm to nm scale. The method relies on the closed-loop feedback on the angular deflection of an in-contact AFM microcantilever. High performance in stability and accuracy is achieved in this method by taking advantage of the small mechanical feedback path between surface and probe. We describe how internal error sources that find their origin in the microcantilever and feedback can be minimized to achieve an accurate and precise control up to 3 nm. In particular, we investigated how hysteresis effects in the feedback caused by friction forces between tip and substrate can be minimized. By applying a short calibration procedure, distance control from contact to several micrometers probe-sample distance can be obtained with an absolute nanometer-scale accuracy. The method presented is compatible with any probe that can be fixed on a microcantilever chip and can be easily built into existing AFM systems.

Method of mechanical holding of cantilever chip for tip-scan high-speed atomic force microscope

In tip-scan atomic force microscopy (AFM) that scans a cantilever chip in the three dimensions, the chip body is held on the Z-scanner with a holder. However, this holding is not easy for high-speed (HS) AFM because the holder that should have a small mass has to be able to clamp the cantilever chip firmly without deteriorating the Z-scanner's fast performance, and because repeated exchange of cantilever chips should not damage the Z-scanner. This is one of the reasons that tip-scan HS-AFM has not been established, despite its advantages over sample stage-scan HS-AFM. Here, we present a novel method of cantilever chip holding which meets all conditions required for tip-scan HS-AFM. The superior performance of this novel chip holding mechanism is demonstrated by imaging of the α3β3 subcomplex of F1-ATPase in dynamic action at ∼7 frames/s.

Multiscale sensing of antibody-antigen interactions by organic transistors and single-molecule force spectroscopy

Antibody-antigen (Ab-Ag) recognition is the primary event at the basis of many biosensing platforms. In label-free biosensors, these events occurring at solid-liquid interfaces are complex and often difficult to control technologically across the smallest length scales down to the molecular scale. Here a molecular-scale technique, such as single-molecule force spectroscopy, is performed across areas of a real electrode functionalized for the immunodetection of an inflammatory cytokine, viz. interleukin-4 (IL4). The statistical analysis of force-distance curves allows us to quantify the probability, the characteristic length scales, the adhesion energy, and the time scales of specific recognition. These results enable us to rationalize the response of an electrolyte-gated organic field-effect transistor (EGOFET) operated as an IL4 immunosensor. Two different strategies for the immobilization of IL4 antibodies on the Au gate electrode have been compared: antibodies are bound to (i) a smooth film of His-tagged protein G (PG)/Au; (ii) a 6-aminohexanethiol (HSC6NH2) self-assembled monolayer on Au through glutaraldehyde. The most sensitive EGOFET (concentration minimum detection level down to 5 nM of IL4) is obtained with the first functionalization strategy. This result is correlated to the highest probability (30%) of specific binding events detected by force spectroscopy on Ab/PG/Au electrodes, compared to 10% probability on electrodes with the second functionalization. Specifically, this demonstrates that Ab/PG/Au yields the largest areal density of oriented antibodies available for recognition. More in general, this work shows that specific recognition events in multiscale biosensors can be assessed, quantified, and optimized by means of a nanoscale technique.

Versatile method for AFM-tip functionalization with biomolecules: fishing a ligand by means of an in situ click reaction

A facile and universal method for the functionalization of an AFM tip has been developed for chemical force spectroscopy (CFS) studies of intermolecular interactions of biomolecules. A click reaction between tripod-acetylene and an azide-linker-ligand molecule was successfully carried out on the AFM tip surface and used for the CFS study of ligand-receptor interactions.

Imaging three-dimensional surface objects with submolecular resolution by atomic force microscopy

Submolecular imaging by atomic force microscopy (AFM) has recently been established as a stunning technique to reveal the chemical structure of unknown molecules, to characterize intramolecular charge distributions and bond ordering, as well as to study chemical transformations and intermolecular interactions. So far, most of these feats were achieved on planar molecular systems because high-resolution imaging of three-dimensional (3D) surface structures with AFM remains challenging. Here we present a method for high-resolution imaging of nonplanar molecules and 3D surface systems using AFM with silicon cantilevers as force sensors. We demonstrate this method by resolving the step-edges of the (101) anatase surface at the atomic scale by simultaneously visualizing the structure of a pentacene molecule together with the atomic positions of the substrate and by resolving the contour and probe-surface force field on a C60 molecule with intramolecular resolution. The method reported here holds substantial promise for the study of 3D surface systems such as nanotubes, clusters, nanoparticles, polymers, and biomolecules using AFM with high resolution.

Atomic Resolution of Calcium and Oxygen Sublattices of Calcite in Ambient Conditions by Atomic Force Microscopy Using qPlus Sensors with Sapphire Tips

Characterization and imaging at the atomic scale with atomic force microscopy in biocompatible environments is an ongoing challenge. We demonstrate atomically resolved imaging of the calcite (101̅4) surface plane using stiff quartz cantilevers ("qPlus sensors", stiffness k = 1280 N/m) equipped with sapphire tips in ambient conditions without any surface preparation. With 10 atoms in one surface unit cell, calcite has a highly complex surface structure comprising three different chemical elements (Ca, C, and O). We obtain true atomic resolution of calcite in air at relative humidity ranging from 20% to 40%, imaging atomic steps and single atomic defects. We observe a great durability of sapphire tips with their Mohs hardness of 9, only one step below diamond. Depending on the state of the sapphire tip, we resolve either the calcium or the oxygen sublattice. We determine the tip termination by comparing the experimental images with simulations and discuss the possibility of chemical tip identification in air. The main challenges for imaging arise from the presence of water layers, which form on almost all surfaces and have the potential to dissolve the crystal surface. Frequency shift versus distance spectra show the presence of at least three ordered hydration layers. The measured height of the first hydration layer corresponds well to X-ray diffraction data and molecular dynamic simulations, namely, ∼220 pm. For the following hydration layers we measure ∼380 pm for the second and third layer, ending up in a total hydration layer thickness of at least 1 nm. Understanding the influence of water layers and their structure is important for surface segregation, surface reactions including reconstructions, healing of defects, and corrosion.

Force-controlled patch clamp of beating cardiac cells

From its invention in the 1970s, the patch clamp technique is the gold standard in electrophysiology research and drug screening because it is the only tool enabling accurate investigation of voltage-gated ion channels, which are responsible for action potentials. Because of its key role in drug screening, innovation efforts are being made to reduce its complexity toward more automated systems. While some of these new approaches are being adopted in pharmaceutical companies, conventional patch-clamp remains unmatched in fundamental research due to its versatility. Here, we merged the patch clamp and atomic force microscope (AFM) techniques, thus equipping the patch-clamp with the sensitive AFM force control. This was possible using the FluidFM, a force-controlled nanopipette based on microchanneled AFM cantilevers. First, the compatibility of the system with patch-clamp electronics and its ability to record the activity of voltage-gated ion channels in whole-cell configuration was demonstrated with sodium (NaV1.5) channels. Second, we showed the feasibility of simultaneous recording of membrane current and force development during contraction of isolated cardiomyocytes. Force feedback allowed for a gentle and stable contact between AFM tip and cell membrane enabling serial patch clamping and injection without apparent cell damage.

Tip localization of an atomic force microscope in transmission microscopy with nanoscale precision

Since the atomic force microscope (AFM) has evolved into a general purpose platform for mechanical experiments at the nanoscale, the need for a simple and generally applicable localization of the AFM cantilever in the reference frame of an optical microscope has grown. Molecular manipulations like in single molecule cut and paste or force spectroscopy as well as tip mediated nanolithography are prominent examples for the broad variety of applications implemented to date. In contrast to the different kinds of superresolution microscopy where fluorescence is used to localize the emitter, we, here, employ the absorbance of the tip to localize its position in transmission microscopy. We show that in a low aperture illumination, the tip causes a significant reduction of the intensity in the image plane of the microscope objective when it is closer than a few hundred nm. By independently varying the z-position of the sample slide, we could verify that this diffraction limited image of the tip is not caused by a near field effect but is rather caused by the absorbance of the transmitted light in the low apex needle-like tip. We localized the centroid position of this tip image with a precision of better than 6 nm and used it in a feedback loop to position the tip into nano-apertures of 110 nm radius. Single-molecule force spectroscopy traces on the unfolding of individual green fluorescent proteins within the nano-apertures showed that their center positions were repeatedly approached with very high fidelity leaving the specific handle chemistry on the tip's surface unimpaired.

Nanomechanical and topographical imaging of living cells by atomic force microscopy with colloidal probes

Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has a great potential as a tool to characterize mechanical and morphological properties of living cells; these properties have been shown to correlate with cells' fate and patho-physiological state in view of the development of novel early-diagnostic strategies. Although several reports have described experimental and technical approaches for the characterization of cellular elasticity by means of AFM, a robust and commonly accepted methodology is still lacking. Here, we show that micrometric spherical probes (also known as colloidal probes) are well suited for performing a combined topographic and mechanical analysis of living cells, with spatial resolution suitable for a complete and accurate mapping of cell morphological and elastic properties, and superior reliability and accuracy in the mechanical measurements with respect to conventional and widely used sharp AFM tips. We address a number of issues concerning the nanomechanical analysis, including the applicability of contact mechanical models and the impact of a constrained contact geometry on the measured Young's modulus (the finite-thickness effect). We have tested our protocol by imaging living PC12 and MDA-MB-231 cells, in order to demonstrate the importance of the correction of the finite-thickness effect and the change in Young's modulus induced by the action of a cytoskeleton-targeting drug.

Measuring cytoskeleton and cellular membrane mechanical properties by atomic force microscopy

Atomic force microscope is an invaluable device to explore living specimens at a nanometric scale. It permits to image the topography of the sample in 3D, to measure its mechanical properties and to detect the presence of specific molecules bound on its surface. Here we describe the procedure to gather such a data set on living macrophages.

Toward optical-tweezers-based force microscopy for airborne microparticles

Optical tweezers have found widespread application in biological and colloidal physics for the measurement of pN forces over nanometer to micrometer length scales. Similar aerosol-phase measurements of interparticle force have not been reported in spite of the potential to better resolve particle coagulation kinetics. Various refractive index mismatches in the beam path as well as the need to explicitly account for gravity and inertial particle motion provide a number of challenges that must be overcome to make such measurements tractable. In this regard, we demonstrate schemes by which the particle position and trap stiffness may be unambiguously measured using bright-field microscopy with resolution comparable with analogous condensed-phase measurements. Moreover, some of the challenges of working with highly dynamic aqueous particles are introduced and exploited to observe size-dependent phenomena in aerosol optical tweezers. Notably, when combined with cavity-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, this provides a unique opportunity to explore trapping forces over a continuum of particle size and refractive index. It is expected that the methods developed will provide a basis for the measurement of pairwise interaction forces in aerosol optical tweezers while providing a probe of fundamental airborne particle trapping dynamics.

Resonant frequency and sensitivity of a caliper formed with assembled cantilever probes based on the modified strain gradient theory

The resonant frequency and sensitivity of an atomic force microscope (AFM) with an assembled cantilever probe (ACP) is analyzed utilizing strain gradient theory, and then the governing equation and boundary conditions are derived by a combination of the basic equations of strain gradient theory and Hamilton's principle. The resonant frequency and sensitivity of the proposed AFM microcantilever are then obtained numerically. The proposed ACP includes a horizontal cantilever, two vertical extensions, and two tips located at the free ends of the extensions that form a caliper. As one of the extensions is located between the clamped and free ends of the AFM microcantilever, the cantilever is modeled as two beams. The results of the current model are compared with those evaluated by both modified couple stress and classical beam theories. The difference in results evaluated by the strain gradient theory and those predicted by the couple stress and classical beam theories is significant, especially when the microcantilever thickness is approximately the same as the material length-scale parameters. The results also indicate that at the low values of contact stiffness, scanning in the higher cantilever modes decrease the accuracy of the proposed AFM ACP.

Note: High-speed Z tip scanner with screw cantilever holding mechanism for atomic-resolution atomic force microscopy in liquid

High-speed atomic force microscopy has attracted much attention due to its unique capability of visualizing nanoscale dynamic processes at a solid/liquid interface. However, its usability and resolution have yet to be improved. As one of the solutions for this issue, here we present a design of a high-speed Z-tip scanner with screw holding mechanism. We perform detailed comparison between designs with different actuator size and screw arrangement by finite element analysis. Based on the design giving the best performance, we have developed a Z tip scanner and measured its performance. The measured frequency response of the scanner shows a flat response up to ∼10 kHz. This high frequency response allows us to achieve wideband tip-sample distance regulation. We demonstrate the applicability of the scanner to high-speed atomic-resolution imaging by visualizing atomic-scale calcite crystal dissolution process in water at 2 s/frame.

Nanorheology by atomic force microscopy

We present an Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) based method to investigate the rheological properties of liquids confined within a nanosize gap formed by an AFM tip apex and a solid substrate. In this method, a conventional AFM cantilever is sheared parallel to a substrate surface by means of a lock-in amplifier while it is approaching and retracting from the substrate in liquid. The normal solvation forces and lateral viscoelastic shear forces experienced by the AFM tip in liquid can be simultaneously measured as a function of the tip-substrate distance with sub-nanometer vertical resolution. A new calibration method is applied to compensate for the linear drift of the piezo transducer and substrate system, leading to a more precise determination of the tip-substrate distance. By monitoring the phase lag between the driving signal and the cantilever response in liquid, the frequency dependent viscoelastic properties of the confined liquid can also be derived. Finally, we discuss the results obtained with this technique from different liquid-solid interfaces. Namely, octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane and water on mica and highly oriented pyrolytic graphite.

Formation of 100-nm periodic structures on a titanium surface by exploiting the oxidation and third harmonic generation induced by femtosecond laser pulses

Periodic surface structures with periods as small as about one-tenth of the irradiating femtosecond (fs) laser light wavelength were created on the surface of a titanium (Ti) foil by exploiting laser-induced oxidation and third harmonic generation (THG). They were achieved by using 100-fs laser pulses with a repetition rate of 1 kHz and a wavelength ranging from 1.4 to 2.2 μm. It was revealed that an extremely thin TixOy layer was formed on the surface of the Ti foil after irradiating fs laser light with a fluence smaller than the ablation threshold of Ti, leading to a significant enhancement in THG which may exceed the ablation threshold of TixOy. As compared with Ti, the maximum efficacy factor for TixOy appears at a larger normalized wavevector in the direction perpendicular to the polarization of the fs laser light. As a result, the THG-dominated laser ablation of TixOy induces 100-nm periodic structures parallel to the polarization of the fs laser light. The depth of the periodic structures was found to be ~10 nm by atomic force microscopy and the formation of the thin TixOy layer was verified by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy.

3D Viscoelastic traction force microscopy

Native cell-material interactions occur on materials differing in their structural composition, chemistry, and physical compliance. While the last two decades have shown the importance of traction forces during cell-material interactions, they have been almost exclusively presented on purely elastic in vitro materials. Yet, most bodily tissue materials exhibit some level of viscoelasticity, which could play an important role in how cells sense and transduce tractions. To expand the realm of cell traction measurements and to encompass all materials from elastic to viscoelastic, this paper presents a general, and comprehensive approach for quantifying 3D cell tractions in viscoelastic materials. This methodology includes the experimental characterization of the time-dependent material properties for any viscoelastic material with the subsequent mathematical implementation of the determined material model into a 3D traction force microscopy (3D TFM) framework. Utilizing this new 3D viscoelastic TFM (3D VTFM) approach, we quantify the influence of viscosity on the overall material traction calculations and quantify the error associated with omitting time-dependent material effects, as is the case for all other TFM formulations. We anticipate that the 3D VTFM technique will open up new avenues of cell-material investigations on even more physiologically relevant time-dependent materials including collagen and fibrin gels.

Near-field imaging and spectroscopy of locally strained GaN using an IR broadband laser

Scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) offers the possibility to analyze material properties like strain in crystals at the nanoscale. In this paper we introduce a SNOM setup employing a newly developed tunable broadband laser source with a covered spectral range from 9 µm to 16 µm. This setup allows for the first time optical analyses of the crystal structure of gallium nitride (GaN) at the nanometer scale by excitation of a near-field phonon resonance around 14.5 µm. On the example of an artificially induced stress field within a GaN wafer, we present a method for a 2D visualization of small deviations in the crystal structure, which allows for fast qualitative characterizations. Subsequently, the stress levels at chosen points were quantified by recording complex near-field spectra and correlating them with theoretical model calculations. Applied to the cross-section of a heteroepitaxially grown GaN wafer, we finally demonstrate the capability of our setup to analyze the relaxation of the crystal structure along the growth axis with a nanometer spatial resolution.

Nanoscale probing the kinetics of oriented bacterial cell growth using atomic force microscopy

Probing oriented bacterial cell growth on the nanoscale: A novel open-top micro-channel is developed to facilitate the AFM imaging of physically trapped but freely growing bacteria. The growth curves of individual Escherichia coli cells with nanometer resolution and their kinetic nano-mechanical properties are quantitatively measured.

A new ion sensing deep atomic force microscope

Here we describe a new deep atomic force microscope (AFM) capable of ion sensing. A novel probe assembly incorporates a micropipette that can be used both for sensing ion currents and as the tip for AFM imaging. The key advance of this instrument over previous ion sensing AFMs is that it uses conventional micropipettes in a novel suspension system. This paper focuses on sensing the ion current passively while using force feedback for the operation of the AFM in contact mode. Two images are obtained simultaneously: (1) an AFM topography image and (2) an ion current image. As an example, two images of a MEMS device with a microchannel show peaks in the ion current as the pipette tip goes over the edges of the channel. This ion sensing AFM can also be used in other modes including tapping mode with force feedback as well as in non-contact mode by utilizing the ion current for feedback, as in scanning ion conductance microscopy. The instrument is gentle enough to be used on some biological samples such as plant leaves.

From surface to intracellular non-invasive nanoscale study of living cells impairments

Among the enduring challenges in nanoscience, subsurface characterization of living cells holds major stakes. Developments in nanometrology for soft matter thriving on the sensitivity and high resolution benefits of atomic force microscopy have enabled detection of subsurface structures at the nanoscale. However, measurements in liquid environments remain complex, in particular in the subsurface domain. Here we introduce liquid-mode synthesizing atomic force microscopy (l-MSAFM) to study both the inner structures and the chemically induced intracellular impairments of living cells. Specifically, we visualize the intracellular stress effects of glyphosate on living keratinocytes skin cells. This new approach, l-MSAFM, for nanoscale imaging of living cell in their physiological environment or in presence of a chemical stress agent could resolve the loss of inner structures induced by glyphosate, the main component of a well-known pesticide (RoundUp™). This firsthand ability to monitor the cell's inner response to external stimuli non-destructively and in liquid, has the potential to unveil critical nanoscale mechanisms of life science.