Figure 1.

Schematic representation of single vesicle AFM experiments. (A) Vesicles adhere and subsequently deform onto a surface. (B) During AFM imaging the tip is scanned over the sample. In force distance-based imaging the cantilever is oscillated below its resonance frequency, and the force exerted on the sample is well controlled. Small forces will still result in non-negligible sample deformation. The recorded AFM image is always a convolution of the vesicle and tip shape (dotted line). (C) During a nanoindentation experiment the cantilever is lowered onto the center of the vesicle applying a higher force set point (typically 0.5–10 nN) than during imaging.