TITLE:
Joint Operation of Atomic Force Microscope and Advanced Laser Confocal Microscope for Observing Surface Processes in a Protein Crystal
AUTHORS:
Shin-ichiro Yanagiya, Nobuo Goto
KEYWORDS:
Laser Confocal Microscopy; Atomic Force Microscopy; Surface Process; Protein Crystal
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Surface Engineered Materials and Advanced Technology,
Vol.2 No.3A,
July
27,
2012
ABSTRACT: We demonstrated the insitu observation of a moving atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever using a laser confocal microscope combined with a differential interference microscope (LCM-DIM). The AFM cantilever scanned or indented the {110} surface of a hen egg-white lysozyme crystal in a supersaturated solution. Using a soft cantilever, we could observe the step growth with high time resolution by LCM-DIM and perform quantitative measurements of the step height by AFM simultaneously. In addition, a hard cantilever was used with LCM-DIM to observe the dynamics of crystal surface scratching and indentation. In the supersaturated solution, the small steps generated from the scratched line aggregated to macro steps, and subsequently flattened the surface.