May. 06, 2013

Quantum-assisted Nano-imaging of Living Organism

In science, many of the most interesting events occur at a scale far smaller than the unaided human eye can see. Medical researchers might realize a range of breakthroughs if they could look deep inside living biological cells, but existing methods for imaging either lack the desired sensitivity and resolution or require conditions that lead to cell death, such as cryogenic temperatures. Recently, however, a team of Harvard University-led researchers working on DARPA's Quantum-Assisted Sensing and Readout (QuASAR) program demonstrated imaging of magnetic structures inside of living cells. Using equipment operated at room temperature and pressure, the team was able to display detail down to 400 nanometers, which is roughly the size of two measles viruses.
moreApr. 22, 2013

University College London Uses Evactron Plasma Technology

XEI Scientific Inc. has reported that the University College London (UCL) is using an Evactron plasma technology for cleaning their scanning electron microscopy chamber. moreMar. 19, 2013

Scanning Electron Microscopy: Avoiding Contaminations by Improving Cleaning Techniques

Since the inception of the scanning electron microscope (SEM), users have encountered the persistent problem of contamination. Cleanliness is required for imaging and to make good quality measurements, and Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) has led the exploration and the development of methods to allow SEM users gather high-quality, repeatable, and quantitative measurement results.
moreFeb. 25, 2013

SEM and ESEM Observation of Stem Cells

Studying biological samples with scanning electron microscopy has specific requirements for their preparation. Sample drying is a particularly critical operation for objects such as cultured cells. The requirement for damaging drying step can be eliminated using environmental scanning electron microscopy. This study compares dried and wet samples of cultured human embryonic stem cells. It points to the advantages of both methods and to the complementarity of the information that they provide.
moreDec. 20, 2012

Morphology of Nanoparticles

Potential candidates of reference nano-materials are manufactured and systematically characterized in particular with respect to their morphology (shape, size and size distribution) in the frame of the running large European project NanoValid. By exploiting the transmission operation mode in a SEM, known as T-SEM, it is demonstrated by means of three representative examples of nanoparticles how a quick morphological inspection up to a complete, metrological characterization is feasible.
moreOct. 22, 2012

Pitfalls in the Measurement of FIB Beam Size

Focused ion beam (FIB) systems using heavy ions such as Ga are widely used for machining at the 10 - 100 nm level. In order to be able to perform this function precisely it is necessary to have an accurate estimate of the beam size. The commonly used method to measure FIB size is the rise distance method, well known in scanning electron microscopy (SEM), but this is subject to a number of errors that can result in an estimate that is optimistic relative to the true beam size. moreOct. 17, 2012

Software for SEM and Multi-Spectral (Raman) Instruments

Digital Surf has announced that its Mountains 7 software is now compatible with scanning electron microscopes (SEM's) and multi-spectral (Raman) instruments and also brings numerous new features and enhancements for all other supported instrument families.
 
Mountains 7 SEM software can be used to reconstruct 3D surfaces from pairs or quadruplets of SEM images, and Mountains 7 multi-spectral Raman software can be used to visualize and analyze Raman spectra and hyperspectral cubes. moreSep. 25, 2012

Cryo Preparation System for SEM and FIB/SEM

PP3010T from Quorum Technologies is an automated cryo preparation system for scanning electron microscopy (SEM), FE-SEM and FIB/SEM.

Cryo-SEM is the ideal preparation method for a wide range of "wet" or beam-sensitive specimens, including biological systems, foods, polymers, pharmaceuticals, oils, foams and many other materials.

At the operational heart of the PP3010T is the gas cooled aQuilo cryo preparation chamber, which includes tools for specimen fracturing and manipulation as well as fully automatic sublimation and sputter coating. moreJun. 15, 2012

Naked-eye 3D Monitor for the Scanning Electron Microscopy

Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) in Saitama announced that a Japanese research group developed a scanning electron microscope (SEM) capable of showing a three-dimensional (3-D) image in real time and a high-resolution naked-eye 3-D monitor for the SEM.
moreApr. 20, 2012

XFlash 6: Pushing the Limits of Energy Resolution

With XFlash 6, Bruker Nano Analytics has introduced the next generation of silicon drift detectors (SDD) for energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) on electron microscopes. more