Carbon-Nanotube Tip for Highly-Reproducible Imaging of Deoxyribonucleic Acid Helical Turns by Noncontact Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

A carbon nanotube (CNT) was used as a tip for a noncontact-mode atomic force microscope (NC-AFM). A CNT tip was attached to an Au/Si tip by a well-controlled procedure in a scanning-electron-microscope (SEM) chamber. The NC-AFM with the CNT tip produced highly reproducible images of right-handed helical turns of linear deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) with a spacing of 3.5 ±1.0 nm. The full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the cross section of DNA measured was 3.1 ±0.6 nm.