ABSTRACT
There are two main modes in where it operates, imaging and force spectroscopy; the first one is divided into three major mode categories, which are contact, non-contact, and intermittent mode and can be adapted for air or liquid media. The tapping method is more suitable for imaging of soft biological samples and with low surface adhesion such as DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) chains, biopolymers, bacteria, yeast, cells, and tissues of animal and vegetable origin. In addition, soft surface imaging conditions can be maintained for long periods of time, allowing continuous imaging of bacterial cell growth and division, even on planar substrates. Although AFM techniques are already widely used, their applications and tools continue to grow with the development of new methodologies to acquisition of bacterial imaging at high resolution and force spectroscopy with very fast scanning.
