  This paper presents for the first time an innovative instrument called an
inverted scanning microwave microscope (iSMM), which is capable of noninvasive
and label-free imaging and characterization of intracellular structures of a
live cell on the nanometer scale. In particular, the iSMM is sensitive to not
only surface structures, but also ectromagnetic properties up to one micrometer
below the surface. Conveniently, the iSMM can be constructed through
straightforward conversion of any scanning probe microscope, such as the atomic
force microscope or the scanning tunneling microscope, with a simple metal
probe to outperform traditional SMM in terms of ruggedness, and width,
sensitivity and dynamic range. By contrast, the application of the traditional
SMM to date has been limited to mainly surface physics and semiconductor
technology, because the traditional SMM requires a fragile and expensive probe
and is incompatible with saline solution or live biological cells.
