An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a higher resolving power than light microscopes and can reveal the structure of smaller objects. A scanning transmission electron microscope has achieved better than 50 pm resolution in annular dark-field imaging mode and magnifications of up to about 10,000,000× whereas most light microscopes are limited by diffraction to about 200 nm resolution and useful magnifications below 2000×.
A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that produces images of a sample by scanning the surface with a focused beam of electrons. The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that contain information about the surface topography and composition of the sample. The electron beam is scanned in a raster scan pattern, and the position of the beam is combined with the intensity of the detected signal to produce an image. In the most common SEM mode, secondary electrons emitted by atoms excited by the electron beam are detected using a secondary electron detector. The number of secondary electrons that can be detected, and thus the signal intensity, depends, among other things, on specimen topography. SEM can achieve resolution better than 1 nanometer.
Walter Cox McCrone (1916-2002) was an American chemist who was considered a leading expert in microscopy. To the general public, however, he was best known for his work on the Shroud of Turin, the Vinland map, and Forensic science.
Confocal microscopy, most frequently confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) or laser confocal scanning microscopy (LCSM), is an optical imaging technique for increasing optical resolution and contrast of a micrograph by means of using a spatial pinhole to block out-of-focus light in image formation. Capturing multiple two-dimensional images at different depths in a sample enables the reconstruction of three-dimensional structures within an object. This technique is used extensively in the scientific and industrial communities and typical applications are in life sciences, semiconductor inspection and materials science.
A scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is a type of transmission electron microscope (TEM). Pronunciation is [stɛm] or [ɛsti:i:ɛm]. As with a conventional transmission electron microscope (CTEM), images are formed by electrons passing through a sufficiently thin specimen. However, unlike CTEM, in STEM the electron beam is focused to a fine spot which is then scanned over the sample in a raster illumination system constructed so that the sample is illuminated at each point with the beam parallel to the optical axis. The rastering of the beam across the sample makes STEM suitable for analytical techniques such as Z-contrast annular dark-field imaging, and spectroscopic mapping by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, or electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). These signals can be obtained simultaneously, allowing direct correlation of images and spectroscopic data.
The McCrone Research Institute is a not-for-profit educational and research organization for microscopy located in Chicago, Illinois. It was founded by Dr. Walter C. McCrone in 1960. With more than 30,000 enrollments since its incorporation, it is the largest private, independent, nonprofit microscopy and microanalysis institution in the United States dedicated solely to the teaching of microscopists. McCrone Research Institute maintains over one hundred polarized light and various other light microscopes in addition to electron microscopes, spectrometers, and scientific digital imaging systems for use in any of its over 50 intensive one-week courses offered each year.
Focus stacking is a digital image processing technique which combines multiple images taken at different focus distances to give a resulting image with a greater depth of field (DOF) than any of the individual source images. Focus stacking can be used in any situation where individual images have a very shallow depth of field; macro photography and optical microscopy are two typical examples. Focus stacking can also be useful in landscape photography.
The Microscopy Society of America (MSA) was founded in 1942 as The Electron Microscope Society of America and is a non-profit organization that provides microanalytical facilities for studies within the sciences. Currently, there are approximately 3000 members. The society holds an annual meeting, which is usually held in the beginning of August. It has 30 local affiliates across the United States. The society has a program for examining and certifying technologists of electron microscopes. The organization produces two journals: Microscopy Today, and Microscopy and Microanalysis.
The Royal Microscopical Society (RMS) is a learned society for the promotion of microscopy. It was founded in 1839 as the Microscopical Society of London making it the oldest organisation of its kind in the world. In 1866, the society gained its royal charter and took its current name. Founded as a society of amateurs, its membership consists of individuals of all skill levels in numerous related fields from throughout the world. Every year since 1852, the society has published its own scientific journal, the Journal of Microscopy, which contains peer-reviewed papers and book reviews. The society is a registered charity that is dedicated to advancing science, developing careers and supporting wider understanding of science and microscopy through its Outreach activities.
Nestor J. Zaluzec is an American scientist and inventor who works at Argonne National Laboratory. He invented and patented the Scanning Confocal Electron Microscope. and the π Steradian Transmission X-ray Detector for Electron-Optical Beam Lines and Microscopes.
The Journal of Microscopy is the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the Royal Microscopical Society which covers all aspects of microscopy including spatially resolved spectroscopy, compositional mapping, and image analysis. This includes technology and applications in physics, chemistry, material science, and the life sciences. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Society. The editor-in-chief is Pete Nellist, a Materials Science professor at Oxford University.
The journal publishes review articles, original research papers, short communications, and letters to the editor. It was established in 1841 as the Transactions of the Microscopical Society of London, obtaining its current name in 1869, with volume numbering restarting at 1.
Journal of Cell Biology is an international, peer-reviewed journal owned by The Rockefeller University and published by Rockefeller University Press.
Low-voltage electron microscope (LVEM) is an electron microscope which operates at accelerating voltages of a few kiloelectronvolts or less. Traditional electron microscopes use accelerating voltages in the range of 10-1000 keV.
The Journal of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of cell biology established in 1953. It covers research in the structure and function of cells, tissues, and organs as well as components of development, differentiation, and disease, as well as microscopy and imaging techniques. The journal is the official publication of The Histochemical Society and is published by SAGE Publications. The editor-in-chief as of January 1, 2016 is Stephen M. Hewitt of the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda Maryland, USA. The immediate past editor-in-chief is John R. Couchman. The journal is published online and in print monthly. Journal content is available for free after twelve months.
David Bernard Williams is the dean of the College of Engineering at the Ohio State University. He was previously the fifth president of the University of Alabama in Huntsville in Huntsville, Alabama from March 2007 until April 2011, and Vice Provost for Research and Harold Chambers Senior Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Colin Sheppard, usually cited as C. J. R. Sheppard, is Senior Scientist at the Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy. Previously, he was Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Faculty of Engineering for National University of Singapore (2003-2012). He has held joint appointments with the NUS Departments of Biological Sciences and Diagnostic Radiology. He was SMART Faculty Fellow, and Adjunct Research Staff at SERI.
Ondrej L. Krivanek FRS is a Czech/British physicist resident in the United States, and a leading developer of electron-optical instrumentation.
Scanning near-field ultrasound holography (SNFUH) is a method for performing nondestructive nano-scale high-resolution imaging of buried and embedded structures. SNFUH is critical for analysis of materials, structures and phenomena as they continue to shrink at the micro/nano scale. SNFUH is a type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM) technique that provides depth information as well as spatial resolution at the 10 to 100 nm scale.
Peter Duncumb is a British physicist specialising in X-ray microscopy and microanalysis. He is best known for his contribution to the development of the first electron microprobe.
Cryogenic Electron Microscopy (cryo-EM) is an electron microscopy (EM) technique applied on samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures and embedded in an environment of vitreous water. An aqueous sample solution is applied to a grid-mesh and plunge-frozen in liquid ethane or a mixture of liquid ethane and propane. While development of the technique began in the 1970s, recent advances in detector technology and software algorithms have allowed for the determination of biomolecular structures at near-atomic resolution. This has attracted wide attention to the approach as an alternative to X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy for macromolecular structure determination without the need for crystallization.
