AFM and SPR Experiments on Biological Monolayers

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Contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 Introduction to surface specific methods

1.1 General introduction to surface characterization methods

1.1.1 Spectroscopy techniques

1.1.2 Microscopy techniques

1.1.3 Diffraction techniques

1.2 Fresnel theory

1.2.1 Reflection at an interface

1.2.2 Reflection at a layer

1.2.3 Reflection at multiple layers

1.3 Reflectometric methods

1.3.1 Ellipsometry

1.3.2 Brewster angle microscopy

1.3.3 Surface plasmon resonance

1.4 References

Chapter 2 SPR sensing

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Immune reactions

2.2 Immunosensors

2.2.1 Optical evanescent field immunosensors

2.2.2 SPR detection

2.3 Differential SPR sensing

2.3.1 Experimental section

2.3.2 Results and discussion

2.3.3 Conclusion

2.4 SPR multisensing

2.4.1 Introduction

2.4.2 Experimental section

2.4.3 Results and discussion

2.4.4 Conclusion

2.5 References

Chapter 3 Surface plasmon propagation near an index step

3.1 Theory

3.2 Experimental section

3.2.1 Setup

3.2.2 Sample preparation

3.3 Results and discussion

3.3.1 Substrate characterization

3.3.2 Reflectance near the index step

3.3.3 Conclusion

3.4 References

Chapter 4 SPM setup and methods

4.1 Introduction: Lateral and thickness resolution in SPM

4.2 Experimental section

4.2.1 Setup

4.2.2 Improvement of the image quality

4.2.3 Sample preparation

4.3 Results

4.3.1 Characterization of the gold layer

4.3.2 Characterization of the SiO2 layer

4.3.3 Decay length measurement

4.3.4 Imaging the SiO2 layer

4.4 Conclusion

4.5 References

Chapter 5 SPM applied to lipid LB monolayers

5.1 Biological membranes

5.1.1 Biomembrane models

5.2 Monomolecular layers

5.2.1 Monolayer spreading

5.2.2 Surface pressure measurement

5.2.3 Monolayer isotherms

5.2.4 Langmuir-Blodgett deposition on a solid substrate

5.3 Domain formation in lipid monolayers

5.3.1 Domain nucleation and growth

5.3.2 Domain shapes

5.4 LB film characterization with SPM

5.4.1 Experimental section

5.4.2 Results and discussion

5.5 References

Chapter 6 Adhesion AFM applied to lipid LB monolayers

6.1 Introduction

6.2 Experimental section

6.3 Results and discussion

6.4 References

Conclusions

Appendix

A.1 Design aims

A.2 Implementation

A.2.1 Software

A.2.2 Hardware

A.3 Angular accuracy

Summary