Anisotropic growth of water-puckered pentamers on a mica terrace.

Ice nucleation at mica terrace edges in air forms mounds of water molecules that grow larger as the step-edge height increases from a few Angstroms to hundreds of nanometers. The structures of the ice deposits at mica terrace edges were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM), and the edges were shown to act as nucleators for water pentamers, thereby forming a zigzag structure with lattice parameters of 0.72 ± 0.

Drainage kinetics of nanochannels fabricated in water films a few molecules thick on mica at room temperature.

Nanochannels of the order of 20 nm in diameter and forming arrangements that were a few micrometres wide were fabricated on nanometre-thick ice-like deposits on planar mica surfaces at room temperature. Because an atomic force microscopy tip can write lines on ice-like layers covering mica substrates in air that are stable under invariant conditions of humidity and temperature, the water films were modulated with nanochannels. By analysing the shape and morphology of the material removed after channel fabrication for various time intervals, the channel profile was shown to vary with a scale of a tenth of a second.

Long nanofibers arrays through surfactant self-assembly.

Self assembly of molecules can be a simple and versatile approach that may lead to nanostructures. Here we report the formation of arrangements of exceptionally long nanofibers of cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide molecules with highly defined spatial and parallel ordering. Arrangements of approximately 1 microm long nanofibers were observed by non-contact atomic force microscopy.

Quorum sensing detected by atomic force microscopy imaging of corrals surrounding multicellular arrangement of bacteria.

Connectivity of the glycocalyx covering of small communities of Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans bacteria deposited on hydrophilic mica plates was imaged by atomic force microscopy. When part of the coverage was removed by water rinsing, an insoluble structure formed by corrals surrounding each individual bacterium was observed. A collective ring structure with clustered bacteria (>or=3) was observed, which indicates that the bacteria perceived the neighborhood in order to grow a protective structure that results in smaller production of exopolysaccharides material.