| abstract |
This invention relates to a scanning probe microscope which examines or processes directly the structure of substance surfaces at the molecular or atomic level, and a method for processing molecules using a scanning probe microscope and a method for detecting DNA base arrangement. A scanning probe microscope has a probe approaching or contacting the substance surface to detect a physical quantity between the substance surface and the probe, wherein the physical quantity is what is interacted or chemically reacted between the substance surface and the molecules or atom groups which act as a sensor and are fixed on the probe, scanning at an atomic level of precision. Therefore, surface structure within a microscopic region can be examined or processed at the molecular or atomic level. A method for detecting DNA base arrangement with any one of three or four kinds of probes fixed with any one of four different kinds of molecules interacting four kinds of bases consisting of DNA, by approaching single stranded DNA fixed on a substrate, measuring the force and scanning by an atomic force microscope at an atomic level of precision. |