An alternative approach for the Young's modulus determination of biological samples regarding AFM indentation experiments

AFM indentation is a powerful method for the nanomechanical characterization of biological samples and biomaterials. The nanoindentation technique is based on the experimentally obtained load-indentation data which are processed using models of applied mechanics. In this paper, an alternative procedure for the Young's modulus calculation regarding indentation experiments is presented. In the proposed approach a simple equation which relates the work done by the indenter on the sample of interest and on a hypothetical reference sample is derived and used for the Young's modulus determination. The new method is applied for the construction of Young's modulus maps for a human cell line and the results are compared to the results obtained by the classic approach.