Imaging ion microscopy

Author(s):  
G. H. Morrison ◽  
M. G. Moran

Ion induced sputtering of materials can be used to generate images which contain morphological and chemical information. This method of image generation has several key advantages over other techniques. All elements can be detected and imaged. Discrimination among the various isotopes of the elements is possible with sufficiently high mass resolution. Analytical sensitivity is high for many elements, especially those of biological importance such as Na, K, Mg, Ca. The extension of these principles to imaging of molecular ion species is straightforward. Since the sputtering of the sample surface causes erosion, the distribution of elements as a function of depth can be investigated. Depth profiling, in conjunction with imaging is a powerful technique for solving problems of multielement microcharacterization of materials. This technique, which the authors have dubbed Image Depth Profiling, (IDP) also forms the basis for three dimensional reconstruction of elemental distributions within microvolumes of materials.In imaging ion microscopy, the image is acquired in a manner reminiscent of light microscopy. The analogy is depicted in figure 1. An energy homogeneous beam of primary ions irradiates the sample surface and sputtered secondary ions are focused directly on a microchannel ion to electron conversion plate. The primary ions are analogous to the illuminating photons of light microscopy and the secondary ions are analogous to the transmitted or reflected photons.

Author(s):  
Gert Ehrlich

The field ion microscope, devised by Erwin Muller in the 1950's, was the first instrument to depict the structure of surfaces in atomic detail. An FIM image of a (111) plane of tungsten (Fig.l) is typical of what can be done by this microscope: for this small plane, every atom, at a separation of 4.48Å from its neighbors in the plane, is revealed. The image of the plane is highly enlarged, as it is projected on a phosphor screen with a radius of curvature more than a million times that of the sample. Müller achieved the resolution necessary to reveal individual atoms by imaging with ions, accommodated to the object at a low temperature. The ions are created at the sample surface by ionization of an inert image gas (usually helium), present at a low pressure (< 1 mTorr). at fields on the order of 4V/Å.


Author(s):  
R. Levi-Setti ◽  
J.M. Chabala ◽  
Y.L. Wang

Finely focused beams extracted from liquid metal ion sources (LMIS) provide a wealth of secondary signals which can be exploited to create high resolution images by the scanning method. The images of scanning ion microscopy (SIM) encompass a variety of contrast mechanisms which we classify into two broad categories: a) Emission contrast and b) Analytical contrast.Emission contrast refers to those mechanisms inherent to the emission of secondaries by solids under ion bombardment. The contrast-carrying signals consist of ion-induced secondary electrons (ISE) and secondary ions (ISI). Both signals exhibit i) topographic emission contrast due to the existence of differential geometric emission and collection effects, ii) crystallographic emission contrast, due to primary ion channeling phenomena and differential oxidation of crystalline surfaces, iii) chemical emission or Z-contrast, related to the dependence of the secondary emission yields on the Z and surface chemical state of the target.


1999 ◽  
Vol 82 (08) ◽  
pp. 277-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Veklich ◽  
Jean-Philippe Collet ◽  
Charles Francis ◽  
John W. Weisel

IntroductionMuch is known about the fibrinolytic system that converts fibrin-bound plasminogen to the active protease, plasmin, using plasminogen activators, such as tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA) and urokinase-type plasminogen activator. Plasmin then cleaves fibrin at specific sites and generates soluble fragments, many of which have been characterized, providing the basis for a molecular model of the polypeptide chain degradation.1-3 Soluble degradation products of fibrin have also been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, yielding a model for their structure.4 Moreover, high resolution, three-dimensional structures of certain fibrinogen fragments has provided a wealth of information that may be useful in understanding how various proteins bind to fibrin and the overall process of fibrinolysis (Doolittle, this volume).5,6 Both the rate of fibrinolysis and the structures of soluble derivatives are determined in part by the fibrin network structure itself. Furthermore, the activation of plasminogen by t-PA is accelerated by the conversion of fibrinogen to fibrin, and this reaction is also affected by the structure of the fibrin. For example, clots made of thin fibers have a decreased rate of conversion of plasminogen to plasmin by t-PA, and they generally are lysed more slowly than clots composed of thick fibers.7-9 Under other conditions, however, clots made of thin fibers may be lysed more rapidly.10 In addition, fibrin clots composed of abnormally thin fibers formed from certain dysfibrinogens display decreased plasminogen binding and a lower rate of fibrinolysis.11-13 Therefore, our increasing knowledge of various dysfibrinogenemias will aid our understanding of mechanisms of fibrinolysis (Matsuda, this volume).14,15 To account for these diverse observations and more fully understand the molecular basis of fibrinolysis, more knowledge of the physical changes in the fibrin matrix that precede solubilization is required. In this report, we summarize recent experiments utilizing transmission and scanning electron microscopy and confocal light microscopy to provide information about the structural changes occurring in polymerized fibrin during fibrinolysis. Many of the results of these experiments were unexpected and suggest some aspects of potential molecular mechanisms of fibrinolysis, which will also be described here.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. eabd6978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingxin Zhao ◽  
Hongyu Lu ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Shixiong Yu ◽  
Oleksandr I. Malyi ◽  
...  

Coaxial fiber-shaped supercapacitors with short charge carrier diffusion paths are highly desirable as high-performance energy storage devices for wearable electronics. However, the traditional approaches based on the multistep fabrication processes for constructing the fiber-shaped energy device still encounter persistent restrictions in fabrication procedure, scalability, and mechanical durability. To overcome this critical challenge, an all-in-one coaxial fiber-shaped asymmetric supercapacitor (FASC) device is realized by a direct coherent multi-ink writing three-dimensional printing technology via designing the internal structure of the coaxial needles and regulating the rheological property and the feed rates of the multi-ink. Benefitting from the compact coaxial structure, the FASC device delivers a superior areal energy/power density at a high mass loading, and outstanding mechanical stability. As a conceptual exhibition for system integration, the FASC device is integrated with mechanical units and pressure sensor to realize high-performance self-powered mechanical devices and monitoring systems, respectively.


2012 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 1129-1134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Cazottes ◽  
François Vurpillot ◽  
Abdeslem Fnidiki ◽  
Dany Lemarchand ◽  
Marcello Baricco ◽  
...  

AbstractThe microstructure of Cu80Fe10Ni10 (at. %) granular ribbons was investigated by means of three-dimensional field ion microscopy (3D FIM). This ribbon is composed of magnetic precipitates embedded in a nonmagnetic matrix. The magnetic precipitates have a diameter smaller than 5 nm in the as-spun state and are coherent with the matrix. No accurate characterization of such a microstructure has been performed so far. A tomographic characterization of the microstructure of melt spun and annealed Cu80Fe10Ni10 ribbon was achieved with 3D FIM at the atomic scale. A precise determination of the size distribution, number density, and distance between the precipitates was carried out. The mean diameter for the precipitates is 4 nm in the as-spun state. After 2 h at 350°C, there is an increase of the size of the precipitates, while after 2 h at 400°C the mean diameter of the precipitates decreases. Those data were used as inputs in models that describe the magnetic and magnetoresistive properties of this alloy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 1749-1760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patrick Philipp ◽  
Lukasz Rzeznik ◽  
Tom Wirtz

The analysis of polymers by secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) has been a topic of interest for many years. In recent years, the primary ion species evolved from heavy monatomic ions to cluster and massive cluster primary ions in order to preserve a maximum of organic information. The progress in less-damaging sputtering goes along with a loss in lateral resolution for 2D and 3D imaging. By contrast the development of a mass spectrometer as an add-on tool for the helium ion microscope (HIM), which uses finely focussed He+ or Ne+ beams, allows for the analysis of secondary ions and small secondary cluster ions with unprecedented lateral resolution. Irradiation induced damage and depth profiling capabilities obtained with these light rare gas species have been far less investigated than ion species used classically in SIMS. In this paper we simulated the sputtering of multi-layered polymer samples using the BCA (binary collision approximation) code SD_TRIM_SP to study preferential sputtering and atomic mixing in such samples up to a fluence of 1018 ions/cm2. Results show that helium primary ions are completely inappropriate for depth profiling applications with this kind of sample materials while results for neon are similar to argon. The latter is commonly used as primary ion species in SIMS. For the two heavier species, layers separated by 10 nm can be distinguished for impact energies of a few keV. These results are encouraging for 3D imaging applications where lateral and depth information are of importance.


2013 ◽  
Vol 21 (5) ◽  
pp. 40-45

Microscopy Today congratulates the fourth annual group of Innovation Award winners. The ten innovations described below move several microscopy techniques forward: light microscopy, scanning probe microscopy, electron microscopy, ion microscopy, and hybrid microscopy-analysis methods. These innovations will make imaging and analysis more powerful, more flexible, more productive, and easier to accomplish.


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