Atomic force microscopy (AFM) has been used by to study energy dissipation on the surface coating of a magnetometer cell wall, where the energy dissipation between the AFM tip and the surface coating is assumed approximately equal to the adsorption energy induced by the collision between alkali-metal atoms and the surface coating. They established that the energy dissipation on the coating (paraffin) of the cell surface is related to the relaxation rate of the alkali-metal (Cs atom) vapour cell: The energy dissipation is directly proportional to the square root of the relaxation rate (or inversely proportional to the square root of relaxation time). Thus showing that the anti-relaxation behaviour of the cell wall coating can be characterised by the energy dissipation on the coating. Hence the performance of anti-relaxation coatings of alkali-metal cells can be directly analysed using the energy dissipation of anti-relaxation coatings instead of measuring the relaxation time. Therefore, characterising the atomic and molecular interactions between alkali metal atoms and surface coatings may help to understand the adsorption energy and the energy dissipation.