TY - JOUR
T1 - Reduction of anisotropic image resolution in transmission electron microtomography by use of quadrangular prism-shaped section
AU - Kaneko, Takeshi
AU - Nishioka, Hideo
AU - Nishi, Toshio
AU - Jinnai, Hiroshi
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) through a project on ‘Nano Structured Polymeric Materials’ by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Japan. The authors are grateful to Dr Y. Nishikawa for his help in data analysis.
PY - 2005/10
Y1 - 2005/10
N2 - A quadrangular prism specimen (a 'prism-shaped' section) was observed in three-dimension (3-D) by transmission electron microtomography (TEMT) over as wide a tilt range as possible. Two types of specimens were prepared for the TEMT experiments: (i) a prism-shaped section of a block copolymer nanostructure, whose cross section was 200 nm on each side and (ii) a conventional ultrathin section having the same thickness (∼200 nm) as the prism-shaped section. Image quality of the projections taken at high tilt angles, e.g. 60°, of the prism-shaped section was considerably better than that of the ultrathin section. This was because the path length of electron beam of the prism-shaped section was shorter (and hence the transmission was higher) than that of the ultrathin section at the same tilt angle. Thus, although the projections of the ultrathin section at the tilt angle larger than ∼40° did not effectively contribute to the 3-D reconstruction, those of the prism-shaped section at very high tilt angles, e.g. ±75°, can still be used for the 3-D reconstruction. Three orthogonal cross-sectional views of the 3-D reconstruction were extensively compared between the two sections. It was found that (i) the image contrast of the 3-D reconstruction was significantly enhanced and (ii) an elongation of structural object due to limitation of the angular range in the electron tomography was considerably reduced using the prism-shaped section.
AB - A quadrangular prism specimen (a 'prism-shaped' section) was observed in three-dimension (3-D) by transmission electron microtomography (TEMT) over as wide a tilt range as possible. Two types of specimens were prepared for the TEMT experiments: (i) a prism-shaped section of a block copolymer nanostructure, whose cross section was 200 nm on each side and (ii) a conventional ultrathin section having the same thickness (∼200 nm) as the prism-shaped section. Image quality of the projections taken at high tilt angles, e.g. 60°, of the prism-shaped section was considerably better than that of the ultrathin section. This was because the path length of electron beam of the prism-shaped section was shorter (and hence the transmission was higher) than that of the ultrathin section at the same tilt angle. Thus, although the projections of the ultrathin section at the tilt angle larger than ∼40° did not effectively contribute to the 3-D reconstruction, those of the prism-shaped section at very high tilt angles, e.g. ±75°, can still be used for the 3-D reconstruction. Three orthogonal cross-sectional views of the 3-D reconstruction were extensively compared between the two sections. It was found that (i) the image contrast of the 3-D reconstruction was significantly enhanced and (ii) an elongation of structural object due to limitation of the angular range in the electron tomography was considerably reduced using the prism-shaped section.
KW - Block copolymer
KW - Electron tomography
KW - Image resolution
KW - Three-dimensional reconstruction
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U2 - 10.1093/jmicro/dfi065
DO - 10.1093/jmicro/dfi065
M3 - Article
C2 - 16243850
AN - SCOPUS:29444451598
SN - 2050-5698
VL - 54
SP - 437
EP - 444
JO - Microscopy (Oxford, England)
JF - Microscopy (Oxford, England)
IS - 5
ER -