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Beam damage of embedding media sections and their investigations by SEM
Krzyžánek, Vladislav ; Novotná, V. ; Hrubanová, Kamila ; Nebesářová, J.
A scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) is useful device combining features of scanning and transmission electron microscopes. The sample in form of the ultrathin section is scanned by the electron probe and the transmitted electrons are detected. Except the dedicated STEMs this mode can exist as options in both TEM and SEM. The STEM based on the SEM equipped by a transmission detector was used for presented experiments. Nowadays, such low voltage STEM is more often used, and in many cases replaces the typical TEM. Here, we report investigations of embedding media that are typically used for TEM preparation of biological samples. The STEM detector in SEM may be able to detect both bright-field and dark-fields images. It uses much lower acceleration voltages (30 kV and below) than conventional TEM or STEM. However, materials like biological samples, polymers including embedding media are electron beam sensitive. Two the most important beam damages are the mass loss and the contamination. Both types of damages depend on the used electron energy and the electron dose applied to the sample. The mass loss depends on the sample composition, and the contamination results from the poor vacuum in the specimen chamber of the SEM, cleanness of the sample surface, etc.
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