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Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy in biology
Author(s) -
KIZILYAPRAK C.,
DARASPE J.,
HUMBEL B.M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of microscopy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.569
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2818
pISSN - 0022-2720
DOI - 10.1111/jmi.12127
Subject(s) - focused ion beam , scanning electron microscope , electron beam induced deposition , materials science , secondary electrons , lamella (surface anatomy) , ion beam , scanning confocal electron microscopy , electron tomography , scanning transmission electron microscopy , ion , transmission electron microscopy , optics , electron , nanotechnology , beam (structure) , chemistry , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , composite material
Summary Since the end of the last millennium, the focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB‐SEM) has progressively found use in biological research. This instrument is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) with an attached gallium ion column and the 2 beams, electrons and ions (FIB) are focused on one coincident point. The main application is the acquisition of three‐dimensional data, FIB‐SEM tomography. With the ion beam, some nanometres of the surface are removed and the remaining block‐face is imaged with the electron beam in a repetitive manner. The instrument can also be used to cut open biological structures to get access to internal structures or to prepare thin lamella for imaging by (cryo‐) transmission electron microscopy. Here, we will present an overview of the development of FIB‐SEM and discuss a few points about sample preparation and imaging.