ABSTRACT
The study of novel materials produces many challenges in the areas of synthesis, modeling, and characterization. For the latter, one would like to be able to determine mechanical, electrical, and dynamical properties and correlate them with structure. Correspondingly, a new perspective is emerging in biology —the significance of studying individual proteins and macromolecular structures is now appreciated as a way to understand the details of molecular binding, transport, and kinetic pathways. Enabling this revolution in nanoscale science has been the development of microscopy techniques that measure structure and many material properties. The atomic force microscope (AFM) provides a wide range of characterization capabilities (electrical, mechanical, chemical, etc.) on the nanometer scale, while correlating these with structure in the form of detailed topography.
