This dataset contains raw AFM data, that had been published in "Studies upon Fluorescent Modulation of Silver Nanoclusters Formed on Bifunctional DNA Template".
Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) Measurements
The surface topography of the samples was investigated using an atomic force microscope (Nanowizard IV, Bruker, formerly JPK, Berlin, Germany) operating in tapping mode. Sample preparation involved deposition on thoroughly cleaned mica surfaces. Before the sample application, the mica surface was functionalized with 10 mM CaCl₂ solution for 5 min and then rinsed with Millipore-grade water. The samples were then loaded onto the functionalized mica surface and incubated for 2 min, followed by another rinsing step with Millipore water. The prepared samples were left to air-dry at room temperature before AFM imaging. All measurements were performed using HQ:NSC35/No Al probes (Innovative Solutions Bulgaria Ltd., Sofia, Bulgaria) with 3 different soft-tapping mode AFM Cantilevers (radius < 8 nm), with spring constants of 0.5, 1, and 2 N/m and resonant frequencies of 65, 90, and 130 kHz, respectively. AFM images were recorded with a resolution of 512 × 512. Samples were prepared 24 h before measurement, stored in a refrigerator, and measured immediately after temperature stabilization without further purification.
Images were processed and analyzed using JPK Data Processing and Gwyddion v2.67 software (http://gwyddion.net/, accessed on 15 May 2025). In Gwyddion, the following operations were performed: level data by mean plane subtraction, align rows using various methods, shift maximum data value to zero, stretch color range to part of data with explicitly fixed color range, extract profiles along arbitrary lines, align and level profiles followed by averaging, and fit Gaussian function to the averaged data.
