Imaging in Biologically-Relevant Environments with AFM Using Stiff qPlus Sensors

Pürckhauer, Korbinian; Weymouth, Alfred J.; Pfeffer, Katharina; Kullmann, Lars; Mulvihill, Estefania; Krahn, Michael P.; Müller, Daniel J.; Giessibl, Franz J.

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-27608-6

Cited by 35 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…We also showed molecular resolution of a lipid bilayer in a liquid environment, which is experimental evidence that we can image with high spatial resolution and low contact force. [25] However, there are still many ongoing challenges. How can we understand the ∆f (z) curve shown in Fig.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in AFM: Seeing Atoms in Ambient Conditions

Weymouth

Wastl

Giessibl

2018

e-J. Surf. Sci. Nanotech.

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It's hard to imagine that we can take a splinter and sharpen it down to the atomic level. It's even more impressive that we can bring this sharp tip close to a surface, scan it over the surface, and be sensitive to the tiny forces between the apex atom and individual atoms on the surface. Measuring and interpreting these forces is the goal of high-resolution atomic force microscopy (AFM). We perform frequency-modulation AFM (FM-AFM), in which we oscillate the tip and record the change in frequency as a measure of the interaction with the surface. FM-AFM performed in vacuum with stiff sensors has lead to amazing discoveries. Now, we are returning to the challenge of imaging samples in device-and biologically-relevant conditions. This contribution summarizes work that was performed in the Giessibl group to image with atomic resolution in ambient and liquid environments. We demonstrated atomic resolution with the qPlus sensor on KBr, and followed this with investigations on graphitic surfaces. We have also shown single-atomic defects and steps on the calcite surface.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in AFM: Seeing Atoms in Ambient Conditions

Weymouth

Wastl

Giessibl

2018

e-J. Surf. Sci. Nanotech.

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“…The qPlus sensor is a stiff ( k = 1800 N/m) self-sensing quartz sensor with a resonance frequency around f 0 = 32 kHz. It has enabled unprecedented results in low-temperature AFM, such as the imaging of single pentacene molecules by Gross et al [12], intramolecular resolution of PTCDA at room temperature by Huber et al [13], as well as the capability to perform non-destructive measurements on sensitive biological samples in air and in a liquid [14]. Moreover, it has been shown that a qPlus AFM is capable of observing material dissolution [7,15].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ion mobility and material transport on KBr in air as a function of the relative humidity

Kirpal

Pürckhauer

Weymouth

et al. 2019

Beilstein J. Nanotechnol.

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Surfaces exposed to air can change their structure due to external influences such as chemical reactions or material exchange and movement. The adsorbed water layer that is present under ambient conditions plays an important role especially for highly soluble materials. Surface atoms can easily diffuse into the thin water layer and, when surface conditions are favorable, they can re-attach to the surface. We collected atomic force microscopy images of KBr surfaces in a humidity-controlled glove box at various relative humidities below 40%. By scratching and poking the surface with the AFM tip, we constructed energetically unfavorable holes or scratch sites and material accumulations and recorded the evolution of these defects as a function of the time. We observed an exponential decay of the size of the defects and material accumulations, and from this data we determined energy barriers to dissolution and aggregation of approximately 0.9 eV.

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“…Such high-resolution imaging in water with minimal deflection noise density (Fukuma and Jarvis, 2006) opened up the possibility of submolecular-scale imaging of liquid/solid interface as well as materials in liquid (Fukuma et al, 2005; Tracey et al, 2016). Lately, using stiff qPlus sensors with small amplitude was found to be able to obtain high Q-factors and image soft biological samples in liquid (Pürckhauer et al, 2018). The subsequent improvement of AFM in force sensitivity, operation speed and other basic performances will significantly broaden the application of AFM in liquid-environment.…”

Section: Perspectivementioning

confidence: 99%

Advances in Atomic Force Microscopy: Weakly Perturbative Imaging of the Interfacial Water

et al. 2019

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The structure and dynamics of interfacial water, determined by the water-interface interactions, are important for a wide range of applied fields and natural processes, such as water diffusion (Kim et al., 2013), electrochemistry (Markovic, 2013), heterogeneous catalysis (Over et al., 2000), and lubrication (Zilibotti et al., 2013). The precise understanding of water-interface interactions largely relies on the development of atomic-scale experimental techniques (Guo et al., 2014) and computational methods (Hapala et al., 2014b). Scanning probe microscopy has been extensively applied to probe interfacial water in many interdisciplinary fields (Ichii et al., 2012; Shiotari and Sugimoto, 2017; Peng et al., 2018a). In this perspective, we review the recent progress in the noncontact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM) imaging and AFM simulation techniques and discuss how the newly developed techniques are applied to study the properties of interfacial water. The nc-AFM with the quadrupole-like CO-terminated tip can achieve ultrahigh-resolution imaging of the interfacial water on different surfaces, trace the reconstruction of H-bonding network and determine the intrinsic structures of the weakly bonded water clusters and even their metastable states. In the end, we present an outlook on the directions of future AFM studies of interfacial water as well as the challenges faced by this field.

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Imaging in Biologically-Relevant Environments with AFM Using Stiff qPlus Sensors

Cited by 35 publications

References 56 publications

Advances in AFM: Seeing Atoms in Ambient Conditions

Advances in AFM: Seeing Atoms in Ambient Conditions

Ion mobility and material transport on KBr in air as a function of the relative humidity

Advances in Atomic Force Microscopy: Weakly Perturbative Imaging of the Interfacial Water

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