Image force microscopy of molecular resonance: A microscope principle
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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Three-dimensional Super Resolution Microscopy of F-actin Filaments by Interferometric PhotoActivated Localization Microscopy (iPALM)
Published on: December 1, 2016
I Rajapaksa1, K Uenal, H Kumar Wickramasinghe
1Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of California, Irvine, California 92697, USA.
Abstract:
We demonstrate a technique in microscopy which extends the domain of atomic force microscopy to optical spectroscopy at the nanometer scale. We show that molecular resonance of feature sizes down to the single molecular level can be detected and imaged purely by mechanical detection of the force gradient between the interaction of the optically driven molecular dipole and its mirror image in a platinum coated scanning probe tip. This microscopy and spectroscopy technique is extendable to frequencies ranging from radio to infrared and the ultraviolet.
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