scholarly journals 3-D Imaging of Crystals at Atomic Resolution

1994 ◽  
Vol 332 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.A. O'keefe ◽  
K.H. Downing ◽  
H-R. Wenk ◽  
Hu Meisheng

ABSTRACTElectron crystallography has now been used to investigate the structures of inorganic materials in three dimensions. As a test of the method, amplitudes and phases of structure factors were obtained experimentally from high resolution images of staurolite taken in a number of different projections. From images in five orientations, a three-dimensional Coulomb potential map was constructed with a resolution of better than 1.4Å. The map clearly resolves all the cations (Al,Si,Fe) in the structure, and all of the oxygen atoms. This method promises great potential for structure determinations of small domains in heterogeneous crystals which are inaccessible to x-ray analysis. Three-dimensional structure determinations should be possible on small domains only approximately 10 unit cells wide, and may resolve site occupancies in addition to atom positions. Given a microscope stage with a suitable range of tilt and enough mechanical stability, the method could also be applied to small crystalline particles larger than about 50Å to 100Å. In addition, it may be possible to apply the method to derive the two-dimensional structure of periodic defects.

Author(s):  
Kenneth H. Downing ◽  
Hu Meisheng ◽  
Hans-Rudolf Went ◽  
Michael A. O'Keefe

With current advances in electron microscope design, high resolution electron microscopy has become routine, and point resolutions of better than 2Å have been obtained in images of many inorganic crystals. Although this resolution is sufficient to resolve interatomic spacings, interpretation generally requires comparison of experimental images with calculations. Since the images are two-dimensional representations of projections of the full three-dimensional structure, information is invariably lost in the overlapping images of atoms at various heights. The technique of electron crystallography, in which information from several views of a crystal is combined, has been developed to obtain three-dimensional information on proteins. The resolution in images of proteins is severely limited by effects of radiation damage. In principle, atomic-resolution, 3D reconstructions should be obtainable from specimens that are resistant to damage. The most serious problem would appear to be in obtaining high-resolution images from areas that are thin enough that dynamical scattering effects can be ignored.


Author(s):  
J.S. Wall ◽  
V. Maridiyan ◽  
S. Tumminia ◽  
J. Hairifeld ◽  
M. Boublik

The high contrast in the dark-field mode of dedicated STEM, specimen deposition by the wet film technique and low radiation dose (1 e/Å2) at -160°C make it possible to obtain high resolution images of unstained freeze-dried macromolecules with minimal structural distortion. Since the image intensity is directly related to the local projected mass of the specimen it became feasible to determine the molecular mass and mass distribution within individual macromolecules and from these data to calculate the linear density (M/L) and the radii of gyration.2 This parameter (RQ), reflecting the three-dimensional structure of the macromolecular particles in solution, has been applied to monitor the conformational transitions in E. coli 16S and 23S ribosomal RNAs in solutions of various ionic strength.In spite of the differences in mass (550 kD and 1050 kD, respectively), both 16S and 23S RNA appear equally sensitive to changes in buffer conditions. In deionized water or conditions of extremely low ionic strength both appear as filamentous structures (Fig. la and 2a, respectively) possessing a major backbone with protruding branches which are more frequent and more complex in 23S RNA (Fig. 2a).


Author(s):  
W. Chiu ◽  
M.F. Schmid ◽  
T.-W. Jeng

Cryo-electron microscopy has been developed to the point where one can image thin protein crystals to 3.5 Å resolution. In our study of the crotoxin complex crystal, we can confirm this structural resolution from optical diffractograms of the low dose images. To retrieve high resolution phases from images, we have to include as many unit cells as possible in order to detect the weak signals in the Fourier transforms of the image. Hayward and Stroud proposed to superimpose multiple image areas by combining phase probability distribution functions for each reflection. The reliability of their phase determination was evaluated in terms of a crystallographic “figure of merit”. Grant and co-workers used a different procedure to enhance the signals from multiple image areas by vector summation of the complex structure factors in reciprocal space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 198 ◽  
pp. 01050
Author(s):  
Yong-Chen ◽  
Zhong Hua-Cheng ◽  
Qi-Xu

Draw lessons from the basic idea of system science methodology, based on the hall three dimensions structure theory construction of research personnel training problems, from the time dimension, logic knowledge and three dimension analysis of all aspects of talent cultivation system, clear the talent training theory support, and solve the problem of a series of contradictions in the process of talent training, further enriched and developed the theoretical system of talents cultivation.


2009 ◽  
Vol 83-86 ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
Syed H. Masood ◽  
Kadhim Alamara

In tissue engineering (TE), a porous scaffold structure of biodegradable material is required as a template to guide the proliferation, growth and development of cells appropriately in three dimensions. The scaffold must meet design requirements of appropriate porosity, pore size and interconnected structure to allow cell proliferation and adhesion. This paper presents a methodology for design and manufacture of TE scaffolds with varying porosity by employing open structure building units and Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) rapid prototyping technique. A computer modeling approach for constructing and assembly of three-dimensional unit cell structure is presented to provide a solution of scaffolds design that can potentially meet the diverse requirements of TE applications. A parametric set of open polyhedral unit cells is used to assist the user in designing the required micro-architecture of the scaffold with required porosity and pore size and then the Boolean operation is used to create the scaffold of a given CAD model from the designed microstructure. The procedure is verified by fabrication of physical scaffolds using the commercial FDM system.


2011 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Allen ◽  
Jochen Wittge ◽  
Jennifer Stopford ◽  
Andreas Danilewsky ◽  
Patrick McNally

In the semiconductor industry, wafer handling introduces micro-cracks at the wafer edge and the causal relationship of these cracks to wafer breakage is a difficult task. By way of understanding the wafer breakage process, a series of nano-indents were introduced both into 20 × 20 mm (100) wafer pieces and into whole wafers as a means of introducing controlled strain. Visualization of the three-dimensional structure of crystal defects has been demonstrated. The silicon samples were then treated by various thermal anneal processes to initiate the formation of dislocation loops around the indents. This article reports the three-dimensional X-ray diffraction imaging and visualization of the structure of these dislocations. A series of X-ray section topographs of both the indents and the dislocation loops were taken at the ANKA Synchrotron, Karlsruhe, Germany. The topographs were recorded on a CCD system combined with a high-resolution scintillator crystal and were measured by repeated cycles of exposure and sample translation along a direction perpendicular to the beam. The resulting images were then rendered into three dimensions utilizing open-source three-dimensional medical tomography algorithms that show the dislocation loops formed. Furthermore this technique allows for the production of a video (avi) file showing the rotation of the rendered topographs around any defined axis. The software also has the capability of splitting the image along a segmentation line and viewing the internal structure of the strain fields.


Author(s):  
David Blow

In Chapter 4 many two-dimensional examples were shown, in which a diffraction pattern represents the Fourier transform of the scattering object. When a diffracting object is three-dimensional, a new effect arises. In diffraction by a repetitive object, rays are scattered in many directions. Each unit of the lattice scatters, but a diffracted beam arises only if the scattered rays from each unit are all in phase. Otherwise the scattering from one unit is cancelled out by another. In two dimensions, there is always a direction where the scattered rays are in phase for any order of diffraction (just as shown for a one-dimensional scatterer in Fig. 4.1). In three dimensions, it is only possible for all the points of a lattice to scatter in phase if the crystal is correctly oriented in the incident beam. The amplitudes and phases of all the scattered beams from a three-dimensional crystal still provide the Fourier transform of the three-dimensional structure. But when a crystal is at a particular angular orientation to the X-ray beam, the scattering of a monochromatic beam provides only a tiny sample of the total Fourier transform of its structure. In the next section, we are going to find what is needed to allow a diffracted beam to be generated. We shall follow a treatment invented by Lawrence Bragg in 1913. Max von Laue, who discovered X-ray diffraction in 1912, used a different scheme of analysis; and Paul Ewald introduced a new way of looking at it in 1921. These three methods are referred to as the Laue equations, Bragg’s law and the Ewald construction, and they give identical results. All three are described in many crystallographic text books. Bragg’s method is straightforward, understandable, and suffices for present needs. I had heard J.J. Thomson lecture about…X-rays as very short pulses of radiation. I worked out that such pulses…should be reflected at any angle of incidence by the sheets of atoms in the crystal as if these sheets were mirrors.…It remained to explain why certain of the atomic mirrors in the zinc blende [ZnS] crystal reflected more powerfully than others.


Author(s):  
Jenny Pickworth Glusker ◽  
Kenneth N. Trueblood

In order to obtain an image of the material that has scattered X rays and given a diffraction pattern, which is the aim of these studies, one must perform a three-dimensional Fourier summation. The theorem of Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier, a French mathematician and physicist, states that a continuous, periodic function can be represented by the summation of cosine and sine terms (Fourier, 1822). Such a set of terms, described as a Fourier series, can be used in diffraction analysis because the electron density in a crystal is a periodic distribution of scattering matter formed by the regular packing of approximately identical unit cells. The Fourier series that is used provides an equation that describes the electron density in the crystal under study. Each atom contains electrons; the higher its atomic number the greater the number of electrons in its nucleus, and therefore the higher its peak in an electrondensity map.We showed in Chapter 5 how a structure factor amplitude, |F (hkl)|, the measurable quantity in the X-ray diffraction pattern, can be determined if the arrangement of atoms in the crystal structure is known (Sommerfeld, 1921). Now we will show how we can calculate the electron density in a crystal structure if data on the structure factors, including their relative phase angles, are available. The Fourier series is described as a “synthesis” when it involves structure amplitudes and relative phases and builds up a picture of the electron density in the crystal. By contrast, a “Fourier analysis” leads to the components that make up this series. The term “relative” is used here because the phase of a Bragg reflection is described relative to that of an imaginary wave diffracted in the same direction at a chosen origin of the unit cell.


SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 215824401989882
Author(s):  
Blaine Marcano ◽  
Gloria Castaño-Collado

The measure created by H. Li offers a useful tool for investigating justice perceptions among team members or peer justice climate; however, more research is required to confirm its structure in lieu of competing models. This study provides evidence for the three-dimensional structure of peer justice climate within a multiethnic context and explores its relation to outcome variable performance. Participants were 304 undergraduate students from universities in the multiethnic, Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. Competing structures of peer justice climate were compared using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses. Results indicated that peer justice climate is best conceptualized as having three dimensions (distributive, procedural, interactional) with an overarching justice factor connecting them. Suggestions are made for improving the measure. Procedural peer justice climate was found to have a significant positive relation with team performance.


The advantages and limitations of electron microscopy at voltages up to 1 MV are outlined. Greater thickness of specimen can be examined, the increase being almost linear with applied voltage for carbonaceous material. Alternatively, a much improved image resolution is obtained from a specimen of given thickness. For such a specimen, radiation damage and temperature rise is less than at 100 kV, but these effects probably set a limit to the maximum thickness of specimen which can be examined at 1 MV . The main disadvantage is that contrast decreases with increasing voltage, as also does the response of the fluorescent screen and of photographic emulsions. The prospective slight gain in ultimate resolving power, which might make possible the imaging of atoms, is largely offset by difficulties in maintaining electrical and mechanical stability. Examples are shown of the usefulness of high voltage microscopy for examining whole chromosomes and thick sections (up to 2 µm ). Stereomicrography is necessary if the three-dimensional structure of such relatively thick specimens is to be properly evaluated. The further possibilities for investigating wet samples in special environmental cells are outlined. It is concluded that the prospects for observing living material are remote.


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