Preparation of flat gold terraces for protein chip developments

A simple method to prepare flat gold terraces on mica for atomic force microscopy biomolecular characterisation is described. The procedure includes preheating of the substrate, metal deposition and an annealing step. All of these steps are at elevated temperatures (300-420degC). This approach allows one to prepare large flat gold terraces (200-500-nm), which constitute ideal substrates for visualisation and characterisation of a self-assembly monolayer of biomolecules at the nanoscale. The authors illustrated this potential of characterisation with the reconstitution of a protein monolayer.