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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Apr 29.
Published in final edited form as: Nanotechnology. 2011 Mar 16;22(17):175707. doi: 10.1088/0957-4484/22/17/175707

Figure 2.

Figure 2

AFM-based mechanical testing was evaluated on 2% agarose gels using repeated indentations, force mapping, and force scanning techniques. All methods provided similar elastic moduli values with excellent run-to-run consistency. Individual, repeated indentations showed no dependency on trigger force or indentation rate (a). Force mapping provided spatial mechanical property information but exhibited a dependency on trigger force, with larger forces/indentations resulting in higher measured moduli (b). Force scanning also provided spatial property mapping and was influenced by maximal applied force (data not shown) but showed no dependency on scanning rate (c). Based on temporal trends observed during testing, very high-resolution images could only be achieved using force scanning within a reasonable time frame (d).