Nanoscope 4 controller

QD films were prepared on FTO-coated glass as described above. Samples were mounted using double-sided adhesive strips to metal disks exposing the QD layer. Imaging was performed with multimode scanning probe microscope equipped with a NanoScope IV controller (Bruker). Height images were obtained in soft-tapping mode using etched silicon probes (TESP, Bruker) with an autotuned resonance frequency range of 250 to 300 kHz at a scan rate of 2 Hz. Images were analyzed with NanoScope Analysis v1.2 software.

LT samples (50 μM total lipid) were incubated on a freshly cleaved mica surface for ∼10 min and subsequently rinsed with water to remove buffer and salts. After the mica surface was allowed to dry, the samples were imaged using the tapping mode on a Digital Instruments MultiMode atomic force microscope equipped with a Nanoscope IV controller and a type E scanner (Bruker, Billerica, MA). All images were acquired using single-beam silicon probes with nominal spring constant of 40 N/m and nominal tip radius of 10 nm.

Multilamellar vesicles were first prepared by hydration of a lipid film (10 mg/ml) in Hepes buffer, followed by incubation at 50°C for 30 min. Liposomal suspensions were then sonicated for 5 min and added to a mica substrate. Excess of liposomes was removed after 1 hour, and the mica surfaces were rinsed 10 times with a 150 mM KCl solution. Samples were imaged using a multimode atomic force microscope with a NanoScope IV controller (Bruker, Santa Barbara, CA) (fig. S6). The tapping mode images were acquired using silicon nitride cantilever tips submerged in buffer. A resonance frequency of ~8 kHz and drive amplitude under 100 mV were used (Asylum Research, Santa Barbara, CA). NanoScope software was used for depth analysis to estimate the height of the lipid membranes.

The surface morphology of nanostructured gold thin films was characterized in air using a Multimode AFM equipped with a Nanoscope IV controller (BRUKER). The AFM was operated in Tapping Mode, using rigid silicon cantilevers mounting single crystal silicon tip with nominal radius 5–10 nm and resonance frequency in the range 250–350 kHz. Several 2 μm × 1 μm images were acquired on each sample with scan rate of 1 Hz and 2048 × 512 points. The images were flattened by line-by-line subtraction of first and second order polynomials in order to remove artifacts due to sample tilt and scanner bow.
Only globular objects from AFM images have been selected for the analysis of the cluster heights, by applying filtering selection criteria described in ref. 29 and 30 . The height distribution of the objects identified is typically log-normal, as it is typical for systems resulting from aggregation processes,^{56 (link)} and they appear Gaussian in a semi-log scale.^{57 (link)} The distributions have been normalized with respect to the total number of counted particles and the median value of each Gaussian is associated to the diameter (in z direction) of the gold clusters.
The gold samples with the lowest coverage have been analyzed in order to characterize the size distribution of the incident clusters using a complementary approach and analysis based on SEM and AFM.²⁹