The effect of several types of the Ga/Si(111) reconstructed structure, which is used as a template for epitaxial growth, on the growth morphology of GaSb islands have been studied by ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy and non-contact atomic force microscopy. The polygonal islands are spread over a wide surface area, although the large dome-shaped islands are locally formed on - and -Ga. The growth process is also changed by the types of template Ga/Si(111) surface. It is suggested that initial growth state affects the growth morphology and process of GaSb island.

Glioblastoma is the most common and malign form of brain cancer that is highly resistant to therapy and particularly hard to cure since the blood-barrier is not very permeable to drugs. Moreover, a surgery is always highly risky. Thus, there is a real need to develop technique enabling accurate identification of potentially tumor cells at an early stage. It is getting well established that cancer cells are usually softer than their normal homologues and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) has proven itself over the last decade to be a tool of choice to characterize cells mechanical properties. Among the various AFM techniques, Force Spectroscopy (FS), especially Force Volume (FV) is the most commonly used. In the present study, AFM has been used to successfully characterize malignant and modified less malignant forms of glioblastoma U-251MG isogenic cells, using FV and Peak Force Tapping (PFT), a newly released AFM mode. Although both modes are quantitative and easy to use, PFT appears as the most relevant. Benefits and drawbacks of both techniques are discussed.

The size distributions of size-controlled ink particles isolated from the ink sacs of squid and cuttlefish were studied by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Topological images indicated that the squid ink particles deposited on mica were not spherical but instead were hemisphere-like. From the heights and widths of the hemisphere-like structures on mica, the diameters of the squid ink particles dispersed in aqueous suspension were estimated to be approximately  nm, close to that obtained from dynamic light scattering analysis. The estimated values were almost the same regardless of the spring constant of AFM cantilevers. A precise estimation was also achieved for the cuttlefish ink particles. The estimation method suggested in the present study would be a valid technique for precisely measuring the size distribution of biological particles by AFM.

For sheet-like tissue, mechanical strength at cell–cell adhesion is important. However, it is unclear how long the mechanical strength is constructed. To clarify temporal change of the strength, we measured elasticity of epithelial cells during cellular migration to cover a vacancy by atomic force microscopy. Immediately after the construction of cell–cell contact, elasticity was low. However, elasticity increased following  min. Time-lapse observation of cellular morphology revealed that cells became spindle-shaped after the construction of cell–cell contact and then became round. The changes in elasticity and morphology would be multi-cellular dynamics in the epithelial wound healing process.

Measurements of surface roughness by atomic force microscope (AFM) may contain an important error from the finite size of AFM tips. The error is rarely evaluated in experiments due to the lack of a quantitative mathematical description of the effect of tip shape on measurements of the roughness of three-dimensional (3D) surfaces. By introducing a parameter called the normalized tip width, we determined approximate generalized formulas that describe the dependencies of three main types of AFM roughness measurements on the parameters of a tip–surface system for Gaussian rough surfaces based on simulations. General models or a practical database may be extracted after establishment of formulas for more types of surfaces.