Transmission Electron Microscopy

The transmission electron microscope (TEM) (Phillips CM12) is used to study samples at extremely high magnifications (up to 1,000,000 times with a point to point resolution of ~4Å). This allows for a more detailed study of samples that are at or beyond the resolution of the light microscope or scanning electron microscope. The TEM provides morphological information through digital imaging, structural information through electron diffraction, and elemental information by EDS (via a Bruker SDD EDS system).

Microtrace is a problem solving service laboratory that provides TEM imaging of biological samples (biological structures, viruses, and bacteria) and analytical TEM (ATEM) analysis of materials samples.  This includes cross sections of devices and polymer samples, stained polymer samples, nanomaterials, and nanoparticles.  Microtrace draws from a range of in house sample preparation methods that includes a polishing laboratory, ultramicrotomy (ultramicrotome), negative staining (e.g., uranyl acetate, osmium tetroxide), precision ion milling (dual argon ion mill – Gatan 691 PIPS), and tripod cross section polishing among other methods.

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