The versatility of Low Temperature Field Emission SEM (LTFESEM) for viewing frozen-hydrated biological specimens, and the high resolutions that can be obtained with such instruments have been well documented. Studies done with LTFESEM have been usually limited to the viewing of small organisms, organs, cells, and organelles, or viewing such specimens after fracturing them.We use a Hitachi 4500 FESEM equipped with a recently developed BAL-TEC SCE 020 cryopreparation/transfer device for our LTFESEM studies. The SCE 020 is similar in design to the older SCU 020 except that instead of having a dedicated stage, the SCE 020 has a detachable cold stage that mounts on to the FESEM stage when needed. Since the SCE 020 has a precisely controlled lock manipulator for transferring the specimen table from the cryopreparation chamber to the cold stage in the FESEM, and also has a motor driven microtome for precise control of specimen fracture, we have explored the feasibility of using the LTFESEM for multiple-fracture studies of the same sample.
