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Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy

 

 
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Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy
 
 
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Magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) is an imaging technique that acquires magnetic resonance images (MRI) at nanometer scales, and possibly at atomic scales in the future. MRFM is potentially able to observe protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
 structures which cannot be seen using X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and scatters into many different directions....
 and protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a field of structural biology in which NMR spectroscopy is used to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of proteins....
. Detection of the magnetic spin
Spin (physics)

In quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nucleus, hadrons, and elementary particles. For particles with non-zero spin, spin direction is an important intrinsic degrees of freedom ....
 of a single electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
 has been demonstrated using this technique. The sensitivity
Sensitivity

Sensitivity may refer to:* Allergy* Sensitivity * Sensitivity * Sensitivity * Sensitivity and specificity are related concepts in statistics...
 of a current MRFM microscope is 10 billion times better than a medical MRI used in hospitals.

etic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) is a measurement technique conceived to observe the three-dimensional atomic structures of single molecules.






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Magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM) is an imaging technique that acquires magnetic resonance images (MRI) at nanometer scales, and possibly at atomic scales in the future. MRFM is potentially able to observe protein
Protein

Proteins are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid Residue ....
 structures which cannot be seen using X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography

X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and scatters into many different directions....
 and protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy
Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Protein nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy is a field of structural biology in which NMR spectroscopy is used to obtain information about the structure and dynamics of proteins....
. Detection of the magnetic spin
Spin (physics)

In quantum mechanics, spin is a fundamental property of atomic nucleus, hadrons, and elementary particles. For particles with non-zero spin, spin direction is an important intrinsic degrees of freedom ....
 of a single electron
Electron

The electron is a subatomic particle that carries a negative electric charge. It has elementary particle and is believed to be a point particle....
 has been demonstrated using this technique. The sensitivity
Sensitivity

Sensitivity may refer to:* Allergy* Sensitivity * Sensitivity * Sensitivity * Sensitivity and specificity are related concepts in statistics...
 of a current MRFM microscope is 10 billion times better than a medical MRI used in hospitals.

Basic principle

Magnetic Resonance Force Microscopy (MRFM) is a measurement technique conceived to observe the three-dimensional atomic structures of single molecules. The concept combines the ideas of magnetic resonance imaging
Magnetic resonance imaging

GaneshMagnetic resonance imaging , or nuclear magnetic resonance imaging , is primarily a medical imaging technique most commonly used in radiology to visualize the structure and function of the body....
 (MRI) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Conventional MRI employs an inductive coil
Coil

A coil is a series of wiktionary:loops. A coiled coil is a structure where the coil itself is in turn also looping....
 as an antenna
Antenna (radio)

An 'antenna' is a transducer designed to transmitter or receive Electromagnetic radiations. In other words, antennas convert electromagnetic waves into electrical currents and vice versa....
 to sense resonant nuclear or electronic spins in a magnetic field
Magnetic field

A magnetism field is a vector field which can exert a magnetic force on moving electric charges and on magnetic dipoles . When placed in a magnetic field, magnetic dipoles tend to align their axes parallel to the magnetic field....
 gradient. MRFM uses a cantilever
Cantilever

A cantilever is a Beam supported on only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by Moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing....
 tipped with a ferromagnetic particle to directly detect a modulated spin gradient force between sample spins and the tip. The motion of the cantilever - in particular the change in its resonant frequency - is detected by an interferometer. Smaller ferromagnetic particles and softer cantilevers increase the signal to noise ratio. Unlike the inductive coil approach, MRFM sensitivity scales favorably as device and sample dimensions are reduced.

Because the signal to noise ratio is inversely proportional to the sample size, Brownian motion
Brownian motion

Brownian motion is the seemingly random movement of particles suspended in a liquid or gas or the mathematical model used to describe such random movements, often called a particle theory....
 is the primary source of noise at the scale in which MRFM is useful. Accordingly, MRFM devices are cryogenically cooled. MRFM was specifically devised to determine the structure of proteins in situ.

Milestones

The basic principles of MRFM imaging and the theoretical possibility of this technology were first described in 1991. The first MRFM image was obtained in 1993 at the IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 Almaden Research Center
Almaden Research Center

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 with 1-µm vertical resolution and 5-µm lateral resolution using a bulk sample of the paramagnetic substance diphenyipicrylhydrazil. The spatial resolution reached nanometer-scale in 2003. Detection of the magnetic spin of a single electron was achieved in 2004. In 2009 researchers at IBM and Stanford announced that they had achieved resolution of better than 10 nanometers, imaging tobacco mosaic virus particles on a nanometer-thick layer of adsorbed hydrocarbons.

External links

  • University of Washington Quantum System Engineering and MRFM Home Page, http://courses.washington.edu/goodall/MRFM/.
  • Magnetic-Resonance Force Microscopy, http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2005/04/magneticresonan.html.


  • MRFM-related publications and presentations, http://qse-journal-ops1.blogspot.com/.