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.
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August 2009
Research Article|
August 10 2009
An open source/real-time atomic force microscope architecture to perform customizable force spectroscopy experiments
Donatello Materassi;
Donatello Materassi
a)
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Minnesota
, 200 Union St. SE, 55455 Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
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Paolo Baschieri;
Paolo Baschieri
b)
2Institute for Chemical and Physical Processes,
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
, Via G. Moruzzi 1, I-56124 Pisa, Italy
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Bruno Tiribilli;
Bruno Tiribilli
c)
3Istituto Sistemi Complessi,
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
, Via Madonna del Piano 10, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy
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Giampaolo Zuccheri;
Giampaolo Zuccheri
d)
4Department of Biochemistry G. Moruzzi, S3 Center of the National Institute for the Physics of the Matter (CNR), Italian Interuniversity Consortium for Materials Science and Technology (INSTM),
University of Bologna
, Via Irnerio, 48, I-40126 Bologna, Italy
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Bruno Samorì
Bruno Samorì
e)
4Department of Biochemistry G. Moruzzi, S3 Center of the National Institute for the Physics of the Matter (CNR), Italian Interuniversity Consortium for Materials Science and Technology (INSTM),
University of Bologna
, Via Irnerio, 48, I-40126 Bologna, Italy
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a)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
b)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
c)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
d)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
e)
Electronic mail: [email protected].
Rev. Sci. Instrum. 80, 084301 (2009)
Article history
Received:
March 26 2009
Accepted:
July 12 2009
Citation
Donatello Materassi, Paolo Baschieri, Bruno Tiribilli, Giampaolo Zuccheri, Bruno Samorì; An open source/real-time atomic force microscope architecture to perform customizable force spectroscopy experiments. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 1 August 2009; 80 (8): 084301. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3194046
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