A. Chen, A.L. Bertozzi, P.D. Ashby, P. Getreuer, Y. Lou, “Enhancement and Recovery in Atomic Force Microscopy Images,” in Excursions in Harmonic Analysis, Volume 2, T.D. Andrews, R. Balan, J.J. Benedetto, W. Czaja, K.A. Okoudjou (Eds.), Birkhäuser Basel, pp. 311–332, 2013.
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@incollection{chen2013enhancement, title = {Enhancement and Recovery in Atomic Force Microscopy Images}, author = {Alex Chen and Andrea L. Bertozzi and Paul D. Ashby and Pascal Getreuer and Yifei Lou}, booktitle = {Excursions in Harmonic Analysis}, volume = {2}, series = {The February Fourier Talks at the Norbert Wiener Center}, editors = {Travis D. Andrews and Radu Balan and John J. Benedetto and Wojciech Czaja and Kasso A. Okoudjou}, publisher = {Birkh\"auser Basel}, pages = {311-332}, year = {2013}, isbn = {978-0-8176-8378-8},}Atomic force microscopy (AFM) images have become increasingly useful in the study of biological, chemical and physical processes at the atomic level. The acquisition of AFM images takes more time than the acquisition of most optical images, so that the avoidance of unnecessary scanning becomes important. Details that are unclear from a scan may be enhanced using various image processing techniques. This chapter reviews various interpolation and inpainting methods and considers them in the specific application of AFM images. Lower-resolution AFM data is simulated by subsampling the number of scan lines in an image, and reconstruction methods are used to recreate an image on the original domain.
The methods considered are classified in the categories of linear interpolation, nonlinear interpolation, and inpainting. These techniques are evaluated based on qualitative and quantitative measures, showing the extent to which scans times can be reduced while preserving the essence of the original features. A further application is in the removal of streaks, which can occur due to scanning errors and post-processing corrections. Identified streaks are removed, and the resulting unknown region is filled using inpainting.