Recent Trends in AFM Imaging Speed and Improvement Methods

: Atomic force microscope (AFM) has become the main tool for observation and manipulation in nanotechnology research due to its nano-meter high resolution, but the slow imaging speed is one of the important reasons hindering the further development of AFM. This article first introduces the applications of AFM in cell biology in recent years, expresses the importance of rapid imaging in cell biology, and then summarizes the reasons affecting the imaging speed of AFM from three aspects: the limited bandwidth of system mechanical components, obvious inherent characteristics of piezoelectric scanners, and complex image processing algorithms. The improvement and optimization methods of mechanical parts or structure, control algorithm and image processing are reviewed for different influence reasons. Then, the advantages and of different improvement methods, as well as the improved imaging speed and imaging quality improvement effects, are compared. Imaging speed and resolution are both several to dozens of times higher than before, while ensuring image quality and without damaging the samples. The aim of this review is to enable students, the public and even experts of different knowledge backgrounds to learn directly, and select realizable improvement methods according to realistic conditions. Finally, the future development trend and further prospects of high-speed AFM are discussed.