Equipment Listing

Description

Zeiss Sigma 300 is a high-vacuum FEG-SEM electron microscope equipped with five detectors and a resolution of 1.2 nm, with the software for correlative light-electron microscopy.
Samples must be:
1) Dried. Biological samples should undergo critical point drying (CPD) or chemical drying; both are available at Conway Imaging as separate services.
2) Electrically conductive. Biological and other non-conductive samples should undergo metal- or carbon coating before imaging to avoid electrical charging.
Detectors/applications. The microscope has five detectors (described below) which could be allied alone or in various combinations, sequentially or simultaneously.
1) The Secondary electron detector (S2, non-retractable) is the default detector for imaging surface structures, for focusing before applying other detectors, and for correlative microscopy.
2) The InLens detector (non-retractable) is another S2 detector located in the optical axis of the electron beam. It helps to visualize structures located in sample depressions, and possesses the highest resolution.
3) The backscatter detector is by default retracted and can be inserted manually. It is used to image the sample's topography, for imaging of sections on ITO-covered coverslips, for correlative light-electron microscopy (CLEM)
4) The scanning transmission detector (STEM) is by default retracted and can be inserted by a motorized system operated by the main Zeiss software (please be extra careful!). It is used to image thin contrasted sections on TEM grids, and the result looks similar to TEM.
5) Energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) detector is by default retracted and can be inserted by a motorized system operated by a separate piece of software. This detector is used to detect and map the elementary composition of the sample surface. Can be used in combination with other detector(s) for correlative microscopy.