title: Towards local electromechanical probing of cellular and biomolecular systems in a liquid environment.
abstract: Electromechanical coupling is ubiquitous in biological systems, with examples ranging from simple piezoelectricity in calcified and connective tissues to voltage-gated ion channels, energy storage in mitochondria, and electromechanical activity in cardiac myocytes and outer hair cell stereocilia. Piezoresponse force microscopy (PFM) originally emerged as a technique to study electromechanical phenomena in ferroelectric materials, and in recent years has been employed to study a broad range of non-ferroelectric polar materials, including piezoelectric biomaterials. At the same time, the technique has been extended from ambient to liquid imaging on model ferroelectric systems. Here, we present results on local electromechanical probing of several model cellular and biomolecular systems, including insulin and lysozyme amyloid fibrils, breast adenocarcinoma cells, and bacteriorhodopsin in a liquid environment. The specific features of PFM operation in liquid are delineated and bottlenecks on the route towards nanometre-resolution electromechanical imaging of biological systems are identified.
authors: Materials Sciences and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37931, USA. The Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37931, USA.
authors: Sergei V
authors: SV
authors: Kalinin
authors: Brian J
authors: BJ
authors: Rodriguez
authors: Stephen
authors: S
authors: Jesse
authors: Katyayani
authors: K
authors: Seal
authors: Roger
authors: R
authors: Proksch
authors: Sophia
authors: S
authors: Hohlbauch
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Revenko
authors: Gary Lee
authors: GL
authors: Thompson
authors: Alexey A
authors: AA
authors: Vertegel