RESOLVING POWER AND SUPERRESOLUTION FOR SPECTROMETERS USED IN RADIATION DETECTION

Author(s):  
M. REGINATTO
Author(s):  
F.J. Sjostrand

In the 1940's and 1950's electron microscopy conferences were attended with everybody interested in learning about the latest technical developments for one very obvious reason. There was the electron microscope with its outstanding performance but nobody could make very much use of it because we were lacking proper techniques to prepare biological specimens. The development of the thin sectioning technique with its perfectioning in 1952 changed the situation and systematic analysis of the structure of cells could now be pursued. Since then electron microscopists have in general become satisfied with the level of resolution at which cellular structures can be analyzed when applying this technique. There has been little interest in trying to push the limit of resolution closer to that determined by the resolving power of the electron microscope.


Author(s):  
A. V. Crewe

The high resolution STEM is now a fact of life. I think that we have, in the last few years, demonstrated that this instrument is capable of the same resolving power as a CEM but is sufficiently different in its imaging characteristics to offer some real advantages.It seems possible to prove in a quite general way that only a field emission source can give adequate intensity for the highest resolution^ and at the moment this means operating at ultra high vacuum levels. Our experience, however, is that neither the source nor the vacuum are difficult to manage and indeed are simpler than many other systems and substantially trouble-free.


Author(s):  
Henry S. Slayter

Electron microscopic methods have been applied increasingly during the past fifteen years, to problems in structural molecular biology. Used in conjunction with physical chemical methods and/or Fourier methods of analysis, they constitute powerful tools for determining sizes, shapes and modes of aggregation of biopolymers with molecular weights greater than 50, 000. However, the application of the e.m. to the determination of very fine structure approaching the limit of instrumental resolving power in biological systems has not been productive, due to various difficulties such as the destructive effects of dehydration, damage to the specimen by the electron beam, and lack of adequate and specific contrast. One of the most satisfactory methods for contrasting individual macromolecules involves the deposition of heavy metal vapor upon the specimen. We have investigated this process, and present here what we believe to be the more important considerations for optimizing it. Results of the application of these methods to several biological systems including muscle proteins, fibrinogen, ribosomes and chromatin will be discussed.


Author(s):  
C. T. Nightingale ◽  
S. E. Summers ◽  
T. P. Turnbull

The ease of operation of the scanning electron microscope has insured its wide application in medicine and industry. The micrographs are pictorial representations of surface topography obtained directly from the specimen. The need to replicate is eliminated. The great depth of field and the high resolving power provide far more information than light microscopy.


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):  
Teruo Someya ◽  
Jinzo Kobayashi

Recent progress in the electron-mirror microscopy (EMM), e.g., an improvement of its resolving power together with an increase of the magnification makes it useful for investigating the ferroelectric domain physics. English has recently observed the domain texture in the surface layer of BaTiO3. The present authors ) have developed a theory by which one can evaluate small one-dimensional electric fields and/or topographic step heights in the crystal surfaces from their EMM pictures. This theory was applied to a quantitative study of the surface pattern of BaTiO3).


Author(s):  
Mihir Parikh

It is well known that the resolution of bio-molecules in a high resolution electron microscope depends not just on the physical resolving power of the instrument, but also on the stability of these molecules under the electron beam. Experimentally, the damage to the bio-molecules is commo ly monitored by the decrease in the intensity of the diffraction pattern, or more quantitatively by the decrease in the peaks of an energy loss spectrum. In the latter case the exposure, EC, to decrease the peak intensity from IO to I’O can be related to the molecular dissociation cross-section, σD, by EC = ℓn(IO /I’O) /ℓD. Qu ntitative data on damage cross-sections are just being reported, However, the microscopist needs to know the explicit dependence of damage on: (1) the molecular properties, (2) the density and characteristics of the molecular film and that of the support film, if any, (3) the temperature of the molecular film and (4) certain characteristics of the electron microscope used


Author(s):  
T. L. Hayes

Biomedical applications of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) have increased in number quite rapidly over the last several years. Studies have been made of cells, whole mount tissue, sectioned tissue, particles, human chromosomes, microorganisms, dental enamel and skeletal material. Many of the advantages of using this instrument for such investigations come from its ability to produce images that are high in information content. Information about the chemical make-up of the specimen, its electrical properties and its three dimensional architecture all may be represented in such images. Since the biological system is distinctive in its chemistry and often spatially scaled to the resolving power of the SEM, these images are particularly useful in biomedical research.In any form of microscopy there are two parameters that together determine the usefulness of the image. One parameter is the size of the volume being studied or resolving power of the instrument and the other is the amount of information about this volume that is displayed in the image. Both parameters are important in describing the performance of a microscope. The light microscope image, for example, is rich in information content (chemical, spatial, living specimen, etc.) but is very limited in resolving power.


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):  
N. Tamura ◽  
T. Goto ◽  
Y. Harada

On account of its high brightness, the field emission electron source has the advantage that it provides the conventional electron microscope with highly coherent illuminating system and that it directly improves the, resolving power of the scanning electron microscope. The present authors have reported some results obtained with a 100 kV field emission electron microscope.It has been proven, furthermore, that the tungsten emitter as a temperature field emission source can be utilized with a sufficient stability under a modest vacuum of 10-8 ~ 10-9 Torr. The present paper is concerned with an extension of our study on the characteristics of the temperature field emitters.


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