title: Imaging three-dimensional surface objects with submolecular resolution by atomic force microscopy.
abstract: Submolecular imaging by atomic force microscopy (AFM) has recently been established as a stunning technique to reveal the chemical structure of unknown molecules, to characterize intramolecular charge distributions and bond ordering, as well as to study chemical transformations and intermolecular interactions. So far, most of these feats were achieved on planar molecular systems because high-resolution imaging of three-dimensional (3D) surface structures with AFM remains challenging. Here we present a method for high-resolution imaging of nonplanar molecules and 3D surface systems using AFM with silicon cantilevers as force sensors. We demonstrate this method by resolving the step-edges of the (101) anatase surface at the atomic scale by simultaneously visualizing the structure of a pentacene molecule together with the atomic positions of the substrate and by resolving the contour and probe-surface force field on a C60 molecule with intramolecular resolution. The method reported here holds substantial promise for the study of 3D surface systems such as nanotubes, clusters, nanoparticles, polymers, and biomolecules using AFM with high resolution.
authors.affiliation: †National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047 Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan.|‡International Center for Young Scientists, NIMS, 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047 Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan.
authors.forename: César
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.affiliation: †National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047 Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan.|§Institute of Physics, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Cukrovarnicka 10, Prague, Czech Rebublic.
authors.forename: Oleksandr
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Stetsovych
authors.affiliation: †National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047 Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan.|§JST, PRESTO, 4-1-8 Honcho, Kawaguchi, Saitama 332-0012, Japan.
authors.forename: Tomoko K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.affiliation: †National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), 1-2-1 Sengen, 305-0047 Tsukuba, Ibaraki Japan.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Custance
mesh_terms: D003461:Crystallography / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D037741:Fullerenes / Q000737:chemistry; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000295:instrumentation*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000295:instrumentation*; D018625:Microscopy, Atomic Force / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015336:Molecular Probe Techniques / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D037741:Fullerenes; C069837:fullerene C60
keywords: Noncontact atomic force microscopy (NC-AFM); high-resolution imaging; submolecular resolution; three-dimensional dynamic force spectroscopy