Limits of Detection:Report Requirements

Guidelines

1. Carefully read sections in the Optical Trapping and Atomic Force Microscopy lab manuals, as guided by your TA. It would be a good idead to read as much as possible from the manuals before your lab sessions with the TA.
2. Gather data as a group, but complete these deliverables on your own. This includes both your code and your written report.
3. Upload your code and report as separate documents on Stellar. (Include your name in the filename as usual.)
4. Write no more than one paragraph when comments are requested.
5. Include plots of your raw data and any additional plots to support your answers.

Deliverables

Optical trap exercise

After working with your TA to gather data, work through Section 4 of the Optical Trapping lab manual and include the following in your Limits of Detection report.

1. Report your results for trap stiffness by each of the three methods at the same power level: equipartition, PSD roll-off, and Stokes drag.
2. Comment on which method you believe to be the best and provide support using concepts that we've discussed in class and in lab both recently and throughout the semester.
3. Report the minimum detectable force in a 100 Hz bandwidth, at your power level.
4. Submit all code used to arrive at your results.

Atomic force microscope exercise

1. Report your results for cantilever stiffness
2. Report the minimum detectable force in a 100 Hz bandwidth if one were to use the cantilever you measured.
3. Comment on how this value compares to typical forces in biological systems (e.g. antibody/antigen binding, DNA hybridization, interdomain forces in proteins, etc.)? Use whatever knowledge you may have, or find one or two examples, but don't spend long doing literature searches.
4. Comment on how you could modify the cantilever to detect smaller forces and state what you believe to be the smallest detectable force using a silicon nitride cantilever. Which parameters most affect the minimum detectable force? I.e. for smaller forces, do you need a cantilever that's shorter? thinner? wider? Comment on which parameter variations will have the greatest effect. Do you see any constraints on these parameters?
5. Submit all code used to arrive at your results.