Use of a repositionable substrate to acquire and compare distinct atomic force microscope images of a field of microtubules

Abstract

Many scanning probe microscope (SPM) experiments of interest require removing the sample from the scanning head of the SPM for processing or examination by other techniques and then replacing it in the SPM head and relocating the original sample area. For feature sizes below 1 μm this is often a tedious, if not impossible, task. To resolve this problem we have designed a patterned substrate which can be used with any SPM to relocate sub-micrometer features even after removal, and subsequent replacement of the sample in the scanning head. The use of this device with an atomic force microscope (AFM) is demonstrated by imaging a field of chicken brain microtubules with several different AFM probes and scan modes. Contact, Tapping™, and error-signal mode AFM images were acquired using normal pyramidal tips and Park Scientific Ultralevers. Images of individual tubules were obtained with all three imaging modes, allowing direct comparison with respect to height, width and feature resolution.