Design Evolution of the Zernike Phase Contrast Transmission Electron Microscope

Transmission electron microscopy with Zernike phase plate.

The possibility of implementing a Zernike phase plate in a transmission electron microscope is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. The phase-retarding plate in the form of thin film with a hole in the center is positioned in the back-focal plane of the objective lens. The experiments show that the phase plate functions as predicted, producing a cosine-type phase contrast transfe...

Zernike Phase Contrast Cryo-Electron Tomography of Bacteria and Viruses

Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is currently the only method available through which pleomorphic biological specimens are imaged to produce three-dimensional (3D) structures at ~2 to 10 nm resolution [1]. There remain challenges associated with imaging intact bacteria and pleomorphic viruses by cryo-ET. In particular, investigators cope with the low contrast of cryo-preserved, unstained spec...

Phase contrast and interference microscopy with the electron microscope.

Effect of a physical phase plate on contrast transfer in an aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope.

In this theoretical study we analyze contrast transfer of weak-phase objects in a transmission electron microscope, which is equipped with an aberration corrector (C(s)-corrector) in the imaging lens system and a physical phase plate in the back focal plane of the objective lens. For a phase shift of pi/2 between scattered and unscattered electrons induced by a physical phase plate, the sine-ty...

Zernike phase-contrast x-ray microscope with pseudo-Kohler illumination generated by sectored (polygon) condenser plate

Zernike phase contrast x-ray microscope has been developed at the undulator beamline 20XU and 47XU of SPring-8. The system consists of a pseudo-Köhler-illuminating system, a Fresnel zone plate objective with outermost zone width of 100 nm, a Zernike phase plate (0.96-m-thick tantalum, /4 or 3/4 phase-shifter at 8 keV) installed at the back-focal plane of the objective, and a visible-light co...