title: Near-field optical imaging of unstained bacteria: comparison with normal atomic force and far-field optical microscopy in air and aqueous media.
abstract: Simultaneous near-field scanning optical and atomic force imaging of bacteria is presented. The bacteria imaged in these studies were unstained. The near-field optical images had excellent signal-to-noise and showed excellent contrast even in these unstained specimens. The images obtained were interpreted in terms of the images that have been obtained by transmission electron microscopy and X-ray imaging. The results show that bacterial near-field optical imaging is going to be a very important tool in the arsenal of the bacteriologist both in terms of understanding the fundamental processes in the life cycle of bacteria with and without cytochemical staining and in terms of clinical diagnostic applications.
authors.affiliation: Division of Applied Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ben-Ami
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Radko
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Ben-Ami
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lieberman
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rothman
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Rabin
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lewis
mesh_terms: D001410:Bacillus megaterium / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D006358:Hot Temperature; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force; D018613:Microscopy, Confocal; D014867:Water
chemical_list: D014867:Water