title: An open source/real-time atomic force microscope architecture to perform customizable force spectroscopy experiments.
abstract: We describe the realization of an atomic force microscope architecture designed to perform customizable experiments in a flexible and automatic way. Novel technological contributions are given by the software implementation platform (RTAI-LINUX), which is free and open source, and from a functional point of view, by the implementation of hard real-time control algorithms. Some other technical solutions such as a new way to estimate the optical lever constant are described as well. The adoption of this architecture provides many degrees of freedom in the device behavior and, furthermore, allows one to obtain a flexible experimental instrument at a relatively low cost. In particular, we show how such a system has been employed to obtain measures in sophisticated single-molecule force spectroscopy experiments [Fernandez and Li, Science 303, 1674 (2004)]. Experimental results on proteins already studied using the same methodologies are provided in order to show the reliability of the measure system.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, 200 Union St. SE, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA. mater013@umn.edu
authors.forename: Donatello
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Materassi
authors.forename: Paolo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Baschieri
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tiribilli
authors.forename: Giampaolo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zuccheri
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Samorì
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D002138:Calibration; D064211:Connectin; D006046:Gold; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D009124:Muscle Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D009206:Myocardium / Q000737:chemistry; D055095:Optics and Photonics / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D010067:Ownership; D011494:Protein Kinases / Q000737:chemistry; D012984:Software; D013057:Spectrum Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D064211:Connectin; D009124:Muscle Proteins; D006046:Gold; D011494:Protein Kinases