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Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy Facility


Comparison to Other Imaging Techniques (See Wiki of underlined terms)

Biological STEM: (BNL, Engel, Leapman, Ortega) emphasis on low-dose, dark field imaging of very thin specimens (~2nm resolution), quantitative imaging (mass mapping), specific heavy atom labels, low-Z negative staining.
Materials science STEM: (CFN, Pennycook, etc.) emphasis on high-dose, small probe (<0.1nm resolution with spherical aberration correction), electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and micro-area diffraction.
Bright field TEM: emphasis on stained thin sections, complexes in high-Z negative stain. ~2nm resolution)
Dark field TEM: emphasis on thin specimens, similar to dark field STEM but 20x higher dose and non-linear image intensity.
Phase contrast TEM: emphasis on frozen-hydrated specimens (~0.5nm resolution with image averaging)
Secondary electron SEM (Scanning Electron Microscopy): emphasis on surface imaging of solid specimens after drying or freeze-fracturing followed by metal shadowing. (~2nm resolution)
AFM (Atomic Force Microscopy): emphasis on thin specimens on flat surfaces (mica), can be done in liquid (~2nm resolution)
STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy): emphasis on conducting properties of flat metal specimens (~0.2nm resolution).
X-ray Crystallography: emphasis on 3-D imaging of objects in crystals (~0.2 nm resolution in 3-D)
Confocal Optical Microscopy: emphasis on 3-D imaging of living tissue with specific fluorescent labels (~200nm resolution in 3-D and msec.)

 

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Last Modified: June 12, 2009
Please forward all questions about this site to: Denise Monteleone


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