Ultra high resolution SEM at high voltage images individual fab fragments applied as molecular label to cell surface receptors

Author(s):  
Klaus-Ruediger Peters

Topographic ultra high resolution can now routinely be established on bulk samples in cold field emission scanning electron microscopy with a second generation of microscopes (FSEM) designed to provide 0.5 nm probe diameters. If such small probes are used for high magnification imaging, topographic contrast is so high that remarkably fine details can be imaged on 2DMSO/osmium-impregnated specimens at ribosome surfaces even without a metal coating. On TCH/osmium-impregnated specimens topographic resolution can be increased further if the SE-I imaging mode is applied. This requires that beam diameter and metal coating thickness be made smaller than the SE range of ~1 nm and background signal contributions be reduced. Subnanometer small probes can be obtained (only) at high accelerating voltages. Subnanometer thin continuous metal films can be produced under the following conditions: self-shadowing effect between metal atoms must be reduced through appropriate deposition techniques and surface mobility of metal atoms must be diminished through high energy sputtering and/or specimen cooling.

Author(s):  
Z. Horita ◽  
D. J. Smith ◽  
M. Furukawa ◽  
M. Nemoto ◽  
R. Z. Valiev ◽  
...  

It is possible to produce metallic materials with submicrometer-grained (SMG) structures by imposing an intense plastic strain under quasi-hydrostatic pressure. Studies using conventional transmission electron microscopy (CTEM) showed that many grain boundaries in the SMG structures appeared diffuse in nature with poorly defined transition zones between individual grains. The implication of the CTEM observations is that the grain boundaries of the SMG structures are in a high energy state, having non-equilibrium character. It is anticipated that high-resolution electron microscopy (HREM) will serve to reveal a precise nature of the grain boundary structure in SMG materials. A recent study on nanocrystalline Ni and Ni3Al showed lattice distortion and dilatations in the vicinity of the grain boundaries. In this study, HREM observations are undertaken to examine the atomic structure of grain boundaries in an SMG Al-based Al-Mg alloy.An Al-3%Mg solid solution alloy was subjected to torsion straining to produce an equiaxed grain structure with an average grain size of ~0.09 μm.


Author(s):  
Keiichi Tanaka

With the development of scanning electron microscope (SEM) with ultrahigh resolution, SEM became to play an important role in not only cytology but also molecular biology. However, the preparation methods observing tiny specimens with such high resolution SEM are not yet established.Although SEM specimens are usually coated with metals for getting electrical conductivity, it is desirable to avoid the metal coating for high resolution SEM, because the coating seriously affects resolution at this level, unless special coating techniques are used. For avoiding charging effect without metal coating, we previously reported a method in which polished carbon plates were used as substrate. In the case almost all incident electrons penetrate through the specimens and do not accumulate in them, when the specimens are smaller than 10nm. By this technique some biological macromolecules including ribosomes, ferritin, immunoglobulin G were clearly observed.Unfortunately some other molecules such as apoferritin, thyroglobulin and immunoglobulin M were difficult to be observed only by the method, because they had very low contrast and were easily damaged by electron beam.


Author(s):  
John G. Sheehan

Improvements in particulate coatings for printable paper require understanding mechanisms of colloidal interactions in paper coating suspensions. One way to deduce colloidal interactions is to mage particle spacings and orientations at high resolution with cryo-SEM. Recent improvements in cryo-SEM technique have increased resolution enough to image particles in coating paints,vhich are sometimes smaller than 100 nm. In this report, a metal-coating chamber is described for preparation of colloidal suspensions for cryo-SEM at resolution down to 20 nm. It was found that etching is not necessary to achieve this resolution.A 120 K cryo-SEM sample will remain in an SEM for hours without noticeable condensation of imorphous ice. This is due to the high vapor pressure of vapor-condensed amorphous ice, measured by Kouchi. However, clean vacuum is required to coat samples with the thinnest possible continuous metal films which are required for high magnification SEM. Vapor contaminants, especially hrydrocarbons, are known to interfere with thin-film nucleation and growth so that more metal is needed to form continuous films, and resolution is decreased. That is why the metal-coating chamber in fig. 1 is designed for the cleanest possible vacuum. Feedthroughs for the manipulator md the shutter, which are operated during metal coating, are sealed with leak-proof stainless-steel Dellows. The transfer rod slides through a baseplate feedthrough that is double o-ring sealed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 639 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philomela Komninou ◽  
Joseph Kioseoglou ◽  
Eirini Sarigiannidou ◽  
George P. Dimitrakopulos ◽  
Thomas Kehagias ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe interaction of growth intrinsic stacking faults with inversion domain boundaries in GaN epitaxial layers is studied by high resolution electron microscopy. It is observed that stacking faults may mediate a structural transformation of inversion domain boundaries, from the low energy types, known as IDB boundaries, to the high energy ones, known as Holt-type boundaries. Such interactions may be attributed to the different growth rates of adjacent domains of inverse polarity.


2007 ◽  
Vol 539-543 ◽  
pp. 2353-2358 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrich Lienert ◽  
Jonathan Almer ◽  
Bo Jakobsen ◽  
Wolfgang Pantleon ◽  
Henning Friis Poulsen ◽  
...  

The implementation of 3-Dimensional X-Ray Diffraction (3DXRD) Microscopy at the Advanced Photon Source is described. The technique enables the non-destructive structural characterization of polycrystalline bulk materials and is therefore suitable for in situ studies during thermo-mechanical processing. High energy synchrotron radiation and area detectors are employed. First, a forward modeling approach for the reconstruction of grain boundaries from high resolution diffraction images is described. Second, a high resolution reciprocal space mapping technique of individual grains is presented.


2011 ◽  
Vol 178-179 ◽  
pp. 421-426
Author(s):  
Jan Vobecký ◽  
Volodymyr Komarnitskyy ◽  
Vít Záhlava ◽  
Pavel Hazdra

Low-temperature diffusion of Cr, Mo, Ni, Pd, Pt, and V in silicon diodes is compared in the range 450 - 800 oC. Before the diffusion, the diodes were implanted with high-energy He2+ to assess, if the radiation defects enhance the concentration of metal atoms at electrically active sites and what is the application potential for carrier lifetime control. The devices were characterized using AES, XPS, DLTS, OCVD carrier lifetime and diode electrical parameters. The metal atoms are divided into two groups. The Pt, Pd and V form deep levels in increased extent at the presence of radiation defects above 600 oC, which reduces the excess carrier lifetime. It is shown as a special case that the co-diffusion of Ni and V from a NiV surface layer results fully in the concentration enhancement of the V atoms. The enhancement of the acceptor level V-/0 (EC 0.203 eV) and donor level V0/+ (EC 0.442 eV) resembles the behavior of substitutional Pts. The second group is represented by the Mo and Cr. They easily form oxides, which can make their diffusion into a bulk more difficult or impossible. Only a slight enhancement of the Cr-related deep levels by the radiation defects has been found above 700 oC.


2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 053104 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Tommasini ◽  
C. Bailey ◽  
D. K. Bradley ◽  
M. Bowers ◽  
H. Chen ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Pierrard ◽  
G. Lopez Rosson

Abstract. With the energetic particle telescope (EPT) performing with direct electron and proton discrimination on board the ESA satellite PROBA-V, we analyze the high-resolution measurements of the charged particle radiation environment at an altitude of 820 km for the year 2015. On 17 March 2015, a big geomagnetic storm event injected unusual fluxes up to low radial distances in the radiation belts. EPT electron measurements show a deep dropout at L > 4 starting during the main phase of the storm, associated to the penetration of high energy fluxes at L < 2 completely filling the slot region. After 10 days, the formation of a new slot around L = 2.8 for electrons of 500–600 keV separates the outer belt from the belt extending at other longitudes than the South Atlantic Anomaly. Two other major events appeared in January and June 2015, again with injections of electrons in the inner belt, contrary to what was observed in 2013 and 2014. These observations open many perspectives to better understand the source and loss mechanisms, and particularly concerning the formation of three belts.


2013 ◽  
Vol 56 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Capuano ◽  
Guido Russo ◽  
Roberto Scarpa

<p>A high-resolution image of the compressional wave velocity and density structure in the shallow edifice of Mount Vesuvius has been derived from simultaneous inversion of travel times and hypocentral parameters of local earthquakes and from gravity inversion. The robustness of the tomography solution has been improved by adding to the earthquake data a set of land based shots, used for constraining the travel time residuals. The results give a high resolution image of the P-wave velocity structure with details down to 300-500 m. The relocated local seismicity appears to extend down to 5 km depth below the central crater, distributed into two clusters, and separated by an anomalously high Vp region positioned at around 1 km depth. A zone with high Vp/Vs ratio in the upper layers is interpreted as produced by the presence of intense fluid circulation alternatively to the interpretation in terms of a small magma chamber inferred by petrologic studies. In this shallower zone the seismicity has the minimum energy, whilst most of the high-energy quakes (up to Magnitude 3.6) occur in the cluster located at greater depth. The seismicity appears to be located along almost vertical cracks, delimited by a high velocity body located along past intrusive body, corresponding to remnants of Mt. Somma. In this framework a gravity data inversion has been performed to study the shallower part of the volcano. Gravity data have been inverted using a method suitable for the application to scattered data in presence of relevant topography based on a discretization of the investigated medium performed by establishing an approximation of the topography by a triangular mesh. The tomography results, the retrieved density distribution, and the pattern of relocated seismicity exclude the presence of significant shallow magma reservoirs close to the central conduit. These should be located at depth higher than that of the base of the hypocenter volume, as evidenced by previous studies.</p>


1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Abdali ◽  
Finn E. Christensen ◽  
Herbert W. Schnopper ◽  
Thomas H. Markert ◽  
Daniel Dewey ◽  
...  

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