How Atomic Microscopes Are Becoming More Accurate and Less Invasive

Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D., is a scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, where he studies human physiological performance and resilience. In addition, Dominic D’Agostino, Ph.D., studies and writes about ketone ester, ketone research, ketone supplementation, and ketone technologies on his KetoNutrition website. His work also incorporates the technique of atomic force microscopy.

Atomic force microscopy has a significant advantage over other types of microscopic imaging hardware and techniques, as it is able to produce an image with resolution on the order of a nanometer. It is not limited by imperfections in the lens or other equipment because, unlike other imaging hardware, it creates an image by probing a sample’s surface without being limited by diffraction. This allows a researcher to gain incredibly accurate measurements and do things like detect cancers or examine the makeup of a cell.

In March 2021, researchers at Kanazawa University found a way to make the probing action of an atomic force microscope less invasive. Typically, these microscopes record data at 12 frames per second and are often required to retrace over areas they already covered to make sure all the needed data is collected. However, the new method forces the probe to record up to 30 frames per second; this means that the probe has to interact less with the sample to collect more data, making it more efficient and less likely to damage the sample or warp the results.