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2010 Innovation Awards


AFM; however, this is now possible, opening new possibilities for Raman imaging with online AFM on highly scattering samples. Te HydraTM


provides these advantages by replacing the


ultra-soſt silicon cantilevers used in BioAFM imaging. Te solution is to use ultra-hard tuning forks. In fact, it has been known for some time that tuning forks with such ultra-hard cantilevers are ultrasensitive when used in normal force feedback. Tey provide an extremely soſt touch without any jump to contact or “ringing” due to adhesion on liſt off that can be observed with soſt silicon cantilevers. Tis is accomplished with a specialized coating that allows the combination of tuning forks even with very hard probes such as near-field optical probes. Tese probes can now be completely immersed in physiological media to be used for live cell imaging. Using this breakthrough technology, ultrasensitive,


non-optically interfering, high Q factor frequency modulation feedback, previously limited to air, can now be applied to live biological nanoimaging combined with nanomechanics and force spectroscopy. Terefore, tuning fork feedback can be applied to soſt living biological media.


Luminance Contrast Jörg Piper Developer: Jörg Piper


Luminance contrast is a new


illumination technique in light microscopy in which the illumi- nating light, the background light, and the imaging light are totally or partially separated from each other and can be regulated with regard to their brightness and color. Te technique is carried out with mirror lenses or modified glass lenses and specialized condensers. In glass lenses, a non- transparent and non-reflecting


circular light stop is mounted in a central position, colored in black, and preferably situated within the back focal plane and congruent with the optical axis. When the axial illuminating light is completely blocked by the light stop, it no longer contributes to the microscope image and the background is totally dark. Nevertheless, scattered light components that are bent and reflected by the specimen can pass the objective because their optical pathway is different from the optical axis and the illuminating light. Tus the specimen appears in a maximized homogeneous contrast, situated in a dark or black background (luminance dark field). Small differences in phase within the specimen and its surrounding medium acquire contrast similar to negative phase contrast (luminance phase contrast). Optional color contrast effects can occur when the light corridors for the central illuminating light and the peripheral background beams are filtered in different colors (bicolor double contrast). When luminance contrast is combined with fluorescence


2010 September • www.microscopy-today.com


techniques, fluorescent and non-fluorescent structures can be simultaneously visualized with clarity (fluorescence luminance contrast). In existing prototypes, based on extraordinary small axial


illuminating light beams, the area of the condenser aperture diaphragm is already very small when luminance phase or interference contrast is carried out, and it is as small as possible in luminance dark-field. Because of this, the vertical depth of field is much higher in luminance contrast than in common bright and dark field or phase and interference contrast images. However, the lateral resolution is not degraded in a visible manner because the imaging light beams can pass the objective over the full range of its aperture.


mySEM


Agilent Technologies, Inc. Novelx, Inc.


Developers: Lawrence Muray, James Spallas, Jim Rynne, Charles Silver, and Scott Indermuehle Te instrument known


as mySEM is a compact, field- emission scanning electron microscope (SEM). By leveraging silicon-processing technologies, a miniature all-electrostatic electron beam column coupled with a


Schottky field-emission electron source has been optimized for low-voltage imaging and sub-10-nm resolution. Stacks of silicon-on-insulator are used to form all the


lenses, apertures, and deflectors needed in the electron beam column. Tis patented Stacked Silicon TechnologyTM


enables


the building of lenses, deflectors, and apertures at wafer-scale. Tese components are then separated from the wafer, inspected, tested, and delivered as discrete components. All interconnects, shields, and any passive or active components are integrated into a single hermetically sealed miniature unit. By leveraging semiconductor and bulk micromachining fabrication processes, advanced packaging technologies, and precision pick-and-place assembly, electron columns can be fabricated with the precise aperture diameters and repeatable alignment tolerances needed to sufficiently minimize aberrations. Te mySEM uses a Schottky field-emitting source, in order


to provide high brightness, stability, a small virtual source size, a low energy spread, and a long tip life. A quad-segmented multichannel plate (MCP) detector, capable of detecting both SEs and BSEs at low accelerating voltages, is located just below the objective lens of the electron beam column and directly above the sample. Te MCP can operate in a topographic mode that can also be used for low-voltage electron channeling contrast imaging (ECCI). Te electron source, the electron beam column, and the detector are combined to create a field-replaceable, field-emission SEM (FESEM) cartridge. Te FESEM cartridge is built onto a standard 3.375-inch diameter flange and is 1.5 inches tall. When the electron source is depleted (typically aſter 10,000 hours of continuous operation), the entire FESEM cartridge can be replaced in the field,


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