Reducing electron beam damage through alternative STEM scanning strategies. Part I – Experimental findings

1969 ◽

Vol 27 ◽

pp. 418-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

R. C. Moretz ◽

D. F. Parsons

Keyword(s):

Electron Beam ◽

Electron Microscope ◽

Structural Damage ◽

Lower Percentage ◽

Vacuum Drying ◽

Total Removal ◽

Total Absence ◽

Biological Studies ◽

Electron Microscopes ◽

Beam Damage

Short lifetime or total absence of electron diffraction of ordered biological specimens is an indication that the specimen undergoes extensive molecular structural damage in the electron microscope. The specimen damage is due to the interaction of the electron beam (40-100 kV) with the specimen and the total removal of water from the structure by vacuum drying. The lower percentage of inelastic scattering at 1 MeV makes it possible to minimize the beam damage to the specimen. The elimination of vacuum drying by modification of the electron microscope is expected to allow more meaningful investigations of biological specimens at 100 kV until 1 MeV electron microscopes become more readily available. One modification, two-film microchambers, has been explored for both biological and non-biological studies.

Download Full-text

Effects of High-Energy Ions on Synthetic Quartz

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100095972 ◽

1972 ◽

Vol 30 ◽

pp. 544-545

Author(s):

Joseph J. Comer ◽

Charles Bergeron ◽

Lester F. Lowe

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Transmission Electron Microscopy ◽

Electron Beam ◽

High Energy ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

Kikuchi Lines ◽

High Energy Ions ◽

Diffraction Patterns ◽

Dauphiné Twinning ◽

Beam Damage

Using a Van De Graaff Accelerator thinned specimens were subjected to bombardment by 3 MeV N+ ions to fluences ranging from 4x1013 to 2x1016 ions/cm2. They were then examined by transmission electron microscopy and reflection electron diffraction using a 100 KV electron beam.At the lowest fluence of 4x1013 ions/cm2 diffraction patterns of the specimens contained Kikuchi lines which appeared somewhat broader and more diffuse than those obtained on unirradiated material. No damage could be detected by transmission electron microscopy in unannealed specimens. However, Dauphiné twinning was particularly pronounced after heating to 665°C for one hour and cooling to room temperature. The twins, seen in Fig. 1, were often less than .25 μm in size, smaller than those formed in unirradiated material and present in greater number. The results are in agreement with earlier observations on the effect of electron beam damage on Dauphiné twinning.

Download Full-text

Enhanced information from biological materials through technological improvements in cryo-electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100124343 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 50 (1) ◽

pp. 788-789

Author(s):

Marc J.C. de Jong ◽

Wim M. Busing ◽

Max T. Otten

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Electron Beam ◽

Biological Materials ◽

Electron Crystallography ◽

Cryo Electron Microscopy ◽

Transmission Electron ◽

The Many ◽

Technological Improvements ◽

Beam Damage

Biological materials damage rapidly in the electron beam, limiting the amount of information that can be obtained in the transmission electron microscope. The discovery that observation at cryo temperatures strongly reduces beam damage (in addition to making it unnecessaiy to use chemical fixatives, dehydration agents and stains, which introduce artefacts) has given an important step forward to preserving the ‘live’ situation and makes it possible to study the relation between function, chemical composition and morphology.Among the many cryo-applications, the most challenging is perhaps the determination of the atomic structure. Henderson and co-workers were able to determine the structure of the purple membrane by electron crystallography, providing an understanding of the membrane's working as a proton pump. As far as understood at present, the main stumbling block in achieving high resolution appears to be a random movement of atoms or molecules in the specimen within a fraction of a second after exposure to the electron beam, which destroys the highest-resolution detail sought.

Download Full-text

Quantitative high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) of defects in ordered polymers

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100163290 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 166-167

Author(s):

Patricia M. Wilson ◽

David C. Martin

Keyword(s):

Electron Microscopy ◽

Electron Beam ◽

High Resolution ◽

Liquid Crystalline ◽

High Resolution Electron Microscopy ◽

Polymer Materials ◽

Scattered Electron ◽

Crystalline Polymers ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Beam Damage

Efforts in our laboratory and elsewhere have established the utility of low dose high resolution electron microscopy (HREM) for imaging the microstructure of crystalline and liquid crystalline polymers. In a number of polymer systems, direct imaging of the lattice spacings by HREM has provided information about the size, shape, and relative orientation of ordered domains in these materials. However, because of the extent of disorder typical in many polymer microstructures, and because of the sensitivity of most polymer materials to electron beam damage, there have been few studies where the contrast observed in HREM images has been analyzed in a quantitative fashion.Here, we discuss two instances where quantitative information about HREM images has been used to provide new insight about the organization of crystalline polymers in the solid-state. In the first, we study the distortion of the polymer lattice planes near the core of an edge dislocation and compare these results to theories of dislocations in anisotropic and liquid crystalline solids. In the second, we investigate the variations in HREM contrast near the edge of wedge-shaped samples. The polymer used in this study was the diacetylene DCHD, which is stable to electron beam damage (Jc = 20 C/cm2) and highly crystalline. The instrument used in this work was a JEOL 4000 EX HRTEM with a beam blanidng device. More recently, the 4000 EX has been installed with instrumentation for dynamically recording scattered electron beam currents.

Download Full-text