The Potentials of Scanning Microscopy

Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe

If the resolving power of a scanning electron microscope can be improved until it is comparable to that of a conventional microscope, it would serve as a valuable additional tool in many investigations.The salient feature of scanning microscopes is that the image-forming process takes place before the electrons strike the specimen. This means that several different detection systems can be employed in order to present information about the specimen. In our own particular work we have concentrated on the use of energy loss information in the beam which is transmitted through the specimen, but there are also numerous other possibilities (such as secondary emission, generation of X-rays, and cathode luminescence).Another difference between the pictures one would obtain from the scanning microscope and those obtained from a conventional microscope is that the diffraction phenomena are totally different. The only diffraction phenomena which would be seen in the scanning microscope are those which exist in the beam itself, and not those produced by the specimen.

Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe

We have become accustomed to differentiating between the scanning microscope and the conventional transmission microscope according to the resolving power which the two instruments offer. The conventional microscope is capable of a point resolution of a few angstroms and line resolutions of periodic objects of about 1Å. On the other hand, the scanning microscope, in its normal form, is not ordinarily capable of a point resolution better than 100Å. Upon examining reasons for the 100Å limitation, it becomes clear that this is based more on tradition than reason, and in particular, it is a condition imposed upon the microscope by adherence to thermal sources of electrons.


Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe

The current status of high resolution scanning microscopy is probably well enough known that it needs little elaboration. Perhaps it is sufficient to say that resolving power can be achieved which is equal to that of the conventional microscope, that contrast is very high, and that a variety of forms of contrast are available which make use of both elastic and inelastically scattered electrons. The one weakness of the scanning microscope of which we are aware is that it is not as efficient as the conventional microscope for phase contrast or obtaining diffraction information.


2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yatin N. Dholakia ◽  
Desiree T.B. D'souza ◽  
Monica P. Tolani ◽  
Anirvan Chatterjee ◽  
Nerges F. Mistry

The study was carried out in pulmonary tuberculosis (PTB) patients from the local Tuberculosis control programme, Mumbai, India. It examined features of chest X-rays and their correlation with clinical parameters for possible application in suspected multidrug resistant TB (MDRTB) and to predict outcome in new and treatment failure PTB cases. X-ray features (infiltrate, cavitation, miliary shadows, pleural effusion, mediastinal lymphadenopathy and extent of lesions) were analyzed to identify associations with biological/clinical parameters through univariate and multivariate logistic regression. Failures demonstrated associations between extensive lesions and high glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb) levels (P=0.028) and male gender (P=0.03). An association was also detected between cavitation and MDR (P=0.048). In new cases, bilateral cavities were associated with MDR (P=0.018) and male gender (P=0.01), low body mass index with infiltrates (P=0.008), and smoking with cavitation (P=0.0238). Strains belonging to the Manu1 spoligotype were associated with mild lesions (P=0.002). Poor outcome showed borderline significance with extensive lesions at onset (P=0.053). Furthermore, amongst new cases, smoking, the Central Asian Strain (CAS) spoligotype and high GHb were associated with cavitation, whereas only CAS spoligotypes and high GHb were associated with extensive lesions. The study highlighted associations between certain clinical parameters and X-ray evidence which support the potential of X-rays to predict TB, MDRTB and poor outcome. The use of Xrays as an additional tool to shorten diagnostic delay and shortlist MDR suspects amongst nonresponders to TB treatment should be explored in a setting with limited resources coping with a high MDR case load such as Mumbai.


2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 286-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastin Raveendar ◽  
Jung-Ro Lee ◽  
Donghwan Shim ◽  
Gi-An Lee ◽  
Young-Ah Jeon ◽  
...  

AbstractThe genus Vicia L., one of the earliest domesticated plant genera, is a member of the legume tribe Fabeae of the subfamily Papilionoideae (Fabaceae). The taxonomic history of this genus is extensive and controversial, which has hindered the development of taxonomic procedures and made it difficult to identify and share these economically important crop resources. Species identification through DNA barcoding is a valuable taxonomic classification tool. In this study, four DNA barcodes (ITS2, matK, rbcL and psbA-trnH) were evaluated on 110 samples that represented 34 taxonomically best-known species in the Vicia genus. Topologies of the phylogenetic trees based on an individual locus were similar. Individual locus-based analyses could not discriminate closely related Vicia species. We proposed a concatenated data approach to increase the resolving power of ITS2. The DNA barcodes matK, psbA-trnH and rbcL were used as an additional tool for phylogenetic analysis. Among the four barcodes, three-barcode combinations that included psbA-trnH with any two of the other barcodes (ITS2, matK or rbcL) provided the best discrimination among Vicia species. Species discrimination was assessed with bootstrap values and considered successful only when all the conspecific individuals formed a single clade. Through sequencing of these barcodes from additional Vicia accessions, 17 of the 34 known Vicia species could be identified with varying levels of confidence. From our analyses, the combined barcoding markers are useful in the early diagnosis of targeted Vicia species and can provide essential baseline data for conservation strategies, as well as guidance in assembling germplasm collections.


1957 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 483-494
Author(s):  
Selby E. Summers

AbstractThe X-ray microscope is an electrostatic optical instrument employing X-rays for shadow projection to magnify and reveal detailed internal structure of specimens opaque to light or electrons. Its many advantages — high resolving power, greater penetration, large depth of field, and stereographic presentation — make the X-ray Microscope a versatile instrument for industrial research and development. Because the instrument was recently introduced, little information is available on specimen preparation techniques, or types of specimens suitable for study. A few of the many possible applications will be discussed, as well as a brief review of the technical details of the instrument.


1998 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 536-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeshi Nakatani ◽  
Yuji Saitoh ◽  
Yuden Teraoka ◽  
Tetsuo Okane ◽  
Akinari Yokoya

An undulator beamline for spectroscopy studies focusing on the electronic structure of actinide materials is under construction. Linearly or circularly polarized soft X-rays are provided by employing a variably polarizing undulator. Varied-line-spacing plane gratings and a sagittal-focusing system are used to monochromatize the undulator beam, whose energy ranges from 0.3 to 1.5 keV. A resolving power of 104 is expected in the whole energy region. These components are methodically operated by the SPring-8 beamline control system. There are three experimental stations in the beamline. In one of the stations the photoemission spectroscopy experiments are carried out at a radioisotope-controlled area where actinide compounds as well as unsealed radioactive materials are usable. Other experimental stations are planned in the beamline for surface photochemical reactions and biological applications.


2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. F. Poulsen ◽  
D. Juul Jensen ◽  
T. Tschentscher ◽  
L. Wcislak ◽  
E. M. Lauridsen ◽  
...  

Non-destructive methods to determine the volume fraction of minor texture components with very low reflection intensities are presented. The methods are based on polycrystalline diffraction of hard X-rays from synchrotron sources. By focusing the X-rays and scanning the specimen, it is shown that volume fractions as low as 10-9 can be registered, provided that the crystallographic orientations of such volume elements are far away from any major texture component. Simultaneously, the spatial resolving power is of the order 0.03 μm3. The relevance of such methods for nucleation studies and trace analysis is outlined.


1992 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 841-847 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. Renner ◽  
M. Kopecký

Vertical dispersion variant of the double-crystal spectrograph is analyzed and its basic quantitative characteristics (luminosity, resolving power) are computed using ray tracing code. It is shown that geometric apparatus smearing is minimized due to high dispersion and spectral resolution may considerably exceed the single-crystal diffraction limit. Performing high-resolution spectral work, the efficiency of the double-crystal apparatus exceeds that of the flat single-crystal spectrograph. The usefulness of this method in laser plasma spectroscopy is demonstrated analyzing the detection of phosphorus He-like resonance line and its satellites.


Very valuable studies of the directions in which photo-electrons are ejected by X-rays have been made recently by Williams, Auger, and Anderson. All of these observers, however, used the C. T. R. Wilson expansion-chamber method which, in spite of its power in working with the individual electron, suffers from the disadvantage that the particular energy level in the atom from which the electron is ejected in general cannot be determined. It is true that in the case of heavy atoms such as xenon and bromine, Auger and Anderson succeeded, through the use of X-rays of particular energies, in distinguishing the electrons thrown out of the K level from those thrown out of the L levels, but to go much further in this direction by the expansion-chamber method (and, for example, to distinguish the L I from the L II or L III electrons) seems hopeless. Consequently, the magnetic spectrograph developed by one of us for studying the velocity of the X-ray electrons as a function of the angle of emission was applied to the problem with the results which it is the purpose of this paper to describe. We, as yet, have not succeeded in determining the actual directions of ejection with the precision which has been attained in the expansion-chamber method, but the resolving power of the apparatus for velocities is so large that the particular level in which each electron group originates is in general quite unambiguous. A description of the apparatus used and the procedure followed has been given in the paper referred to above and need not be repeated here. Ballast lamps of the sort developed at the General Electric Company and sold by the Radio Corporation of America (radiotron UV-886) have proved very useful in holding the current through the solenoid which produces the magnetic field constant during the long exposures (100-200 hours) which are necessary. Eastman X-ray plates were used throughout, as they have been found to be the most sensitive of any so far tried (except Schumann plates which are much too irregular for intensity measurements). The work has been seriously handicapped by the lack of sensibility of the photographic plates for slow electrons and by their rapid falling off in sensibility for electrons of velocities below about 12,000 volts. X-ray tubes with silver, molybdenum and copper anticathodes were used. The characteristic radiation from copper is, however, in spite of its intrinsic intensity, too soft to eject electrons with sufficient velocity to give photographic results in a reasonable length of time with the apparatus used. All the results shown below consequently were obtained with the characteristic rays of either silver or molybdenum.


The results of the various investigations which have been carried out during the last few years on the critical potentials for the excitation of soft X-rays, and for the production of secondary electrons, from solids, have shown that the effects occurring at solid surfaces under electronic bombardment in vacuo are more complex than was anticipated when this line of investigation was begun, and that they cannot be interpreted in any simple way in terms of the displacements of electrons within the atoms of the target. The work of various investigators* on the distribution of velocities among the electrons leaving a surface subjected to bombardment by primary electrons of known energy, has shown that a certain number of the electrons leaving the bombarded surface have energies practically equal to that of the primary stream, suggesting that a readily detectable proportion of the primary electrons is scattered or reflected at the target surface without appreciable loss of energy. The proportion of such electrons is greatest for small bombarding energies, e.g ., about 10 volts, and decreases as the voltage accelerating the primary electrons increases. The other marked feature in the velocity distribution curves, for bombarding voltages up to about 1000, is a group having a sharp maximum at about 10 volts. Apart from these features the distribution is a more or less continuous one, the number of electrons having a given velocity increasing as that velocity increases, except that after achieving a small maximum at about 25 volts less than the primary voltage, the curve falls to a minimum before rising to the very sharp peak indicating true reflection There are no indications of maxima for electron energies differing from the primary by amounts corresponding to those required to effect characteristic electron transitions within the atoms of the target. Moreover, there appears to be nothing in the velocity distribution curves for the secondary emission to correspond to the discontinuities which have been found by various investigators to occur in the current-voltage curves of the secondary electron current from a bombarded surface, or in the current-voltage curves of the photoelectric effect of the soft X-radiation excited by the bombardment. As regards the latter effect an explanation is to hand on the view that the proportion of the primary electrons whose energy is converted, in part, to photoelectrically active radiation is so small that indications of the various different energy transfers suggested by the critical potential curves are swamped in the velocity distribution curves of the secondary electrons. It is, however, more difficult to reconcile the absence of any correlation between the discontinuities which have been observed in the current-voltage curves for secondary electron emission, and the velocity distribution of the latter.


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