Improvement of specimen preparation technique in atomic force microscope for the bacteriological use.

用原子力显微镜（AFM）对铜绿假单胞菌（Pseudomonasaeruginosa）的一种丝状噬菌体进行了接触式和非接触式观察。通过接触模式，噬菌体能够通过第一次扫描成像，但在第二次或第三次扫描中图像很快消失或错位。在这种模式下，高倍率下的图像质量良好。通过非接触模式，能够对噬菌体细丝进行重复成像，但图像质量低于通过接触模式获得的图像质量。在用等离子体聚合的丁烷的薄层涂覆试样之后，即使通过接触模式，重复成像也成为可能。在最初的几次成像扫描中，图像质量很高。聚合丁烷薄膜硬度大，成像针尖容易磨损，导致成像质量下降，针尖的改进对生物样品的高分辨率成像具有重要意义。

A filamentous bacteriophage pf of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was examined by contact or noncontact mode of AFM.Purified phages were applied on clean cover glass and air dried. By contact mode the phage was able to be imaged by the first scan but the image was soon disappeared or dislocated in 2nd or 3rd scanning. The quality of the image in high magnification was well in this mode. By noncontact mode repeated imaging of the phage filament was capable but the quality of the image was less than that obtained by contact mode. After coating the specimens with a thin layr of plasma polymerized butane, even by the contact mode, repeated imaging became capable. The image quality was high in the initial a few imaging scans. The thin film of polymerized butane was so hard that the tip for imaging was soon worm out and resulted in the deterioration of the imaging quality.Improvement of the tip is important for high resolution imaging in biological specimen.