| Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) is one of a family of Scanning Probe Microscopy (SPM) techniques that has revolutionized the study of structures at atomic scales. AFM has a wide gamut of applications in the fields of semiconductors, biosensors, metallurgy, nanobiology and many others. In AFM a sharp tip is brought within nanometers of a sample and scanned in a raster fashion by means of a piezoelectric scanner while the interaction force is kept constant by a z-feedback mechanism. The tip sample interaction force consists of all possible interatomic forces integrated along the physical structure of the tip over a local region of the sample. The major contributions come from tip and sample atomic nuclei repulsions at distances < 10nm and Van der Waals dipole-dipole attractions at about 100 nm. One of the issues in AFM image analysis is related to artifacts introduced by the interaction between the sample and probe tip. This thesis investigates the application of deconvolution techniques to eliminate the artifacts due to tip shape and help enhance the accuracy of measurements. Specifically, the thesis draws a comparison between two of the popular techniques based on Mathematical Morphology and Legendre Transforms and discusses the equivalence between the two approaches. Results of applying the algorithm on samples of tissue scaffolds validate the potential of the technique in nanobiology. |
