Electron staining is generally performed prior to observing organic materials via transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to enhance image contrast. However, electron staining can deteriorate organic materials. Here, we demonstrate electrostatic potential imaging of organic materials via differential phase contrast (DPC) scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) without electron staining. Electrostatic

A scanning electron microscope transition edge sensor (SEM-TES) has been developed to analyze the minor or trace constituents contained in a bulk sample and small particles on the sample under a low accelerating voltage (typically < 3 keV). The low accelerating voltage enables to improve the spatial analysis resolution because the primary electron diffusion length is limited around the sample surface

Unroofing, which is the mechanical shearing of a cell to expose the cytoplasmic surface of the cell membrane, is a unique preparation method that allows membrane cytoskeletons to be observed by cryo-electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, freeze-etching electron microscopy and other methods. Ultrasound and adhesion have been known to mechanically unroof cells. In this study, unroofing using these

Conventional imaging for three-dimensional (3D) ultra-architectural analysis of collagen fibers and fibroblasts is time-consuming and requires numerous ultrathin sections to search the target area. Currently, no method allows 3D ultra-architectural analysis of predetermined areas including spatial relationships between collagen fibers and fibroblasts in vitro. Herein, we developed a new method for

Y-branched or side-by-side-branched carbon microtubes with metal filler material were fabricated, and material transport in the branched microtubes with Joule heating was investigated using in situ scanning electron microscopy with micro-electrode probes. When a voltage and electric current were applied, the material enclosed in the microtubes moved from its original position. The movement was not

The advent of high-flux, high-brilliance synchrotron radiation (SR) has prompted the development of high-resolution X-ray imaging techniques such as full-field microscopy, holography, coherent diffraction imaging, and ptychography. These techniques have strong potential to establish non-destructive three- and four-dimensional nanoimaging when combined with computed tomography (CT), called nano-tomography

Some species of lactic acid bacteria used for the production of natural cheese produce exopolysaccharides (EPS). Electron microscopy is useful for analyzing the microstructure of EPS produced by lactic acid bacteria. However, pretreatments used to observe the microstructure of EPS by electron microscopy, such as dehydration and resin embedding, can result in EPS flowing out easily from the cell. Therefore

High refractive index organic solvents are commonly used as an imaging medium in tissue clearing approaches. While effective, such solvents provide serious concerns for the safety of users and the equipment, especially in a central microscopy unit. To overcome these concerns, we have developed a large and re-usable imaging chamber compatible with the universal mounting frame AK (PeCon GmbH). This chamber

The aquatic carnivorous plant Aldrovanda vesiculosa L. is critically endangered worldwide; its peculiar lifestyle raises many questions and poses problems both intriguing on their own and relevant to conservation. While establishing a culture system for its propagation and restoring its natural habitat in Hozoji pond in Saitama, Japan, we conducted ultrastructural observations to examine various aspects

An ionic liquid (IL) is a salt consisting of only cations and anions, which exists in the liquid state at room temperature. Interestingly ILs combine various favorable physicochemical properties, such as negligible vapor pressure, flame resistance, relatively high ionic conductivity, wide electrochemical window etc. To take advantage of two specific features of ILs, viz. their non-volatile and antistatic

Dendritic spines are small protrusions that receive most of the excitatory inputs to the pyramidal neurons in the neocortex and the hippocampus. Excitatory neural circuits in the neocortex and hippocampus are important for experience-dependent changes in brain functions, including postnatal sensory refinement and memory formation. Several lines of evidence indicate that synaptic efficacy is correlated

The temporal resolution in scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) is limited by scanning system of an electron probe, leading to only a few frames per second (fps) at most in the current microscopes. This situation enforces us to stay atomic-resolution STEM imaging and spectroscopy in the state of static observations. To push the boundary of atomic-resolution STEM imaging into dynamic observations

Materials characterization is indispensable for materials development. In particular, spectroscopy provides atomic configuration, chemical bonding and vibrational information, which are crucial for understanding the mechanism underlying the functions of a material. Despite its importance, the interpretation of spectra using human-driven methods, such as manual comparison of experimental spectra with

We try to improve the limit of the phase estimation of the interference fringe at low electron dose levels in electron holography by a noise reduction method. In this paper, we focus on unsupervised approaches to apply it to electron beam-sensitive and unknown samples and describe an overview of denoising methods used widely in image processing, such as wiener filter, total variation denoising, nonlocal

The combination of scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with analytical instruments has become one of the most indispensable analytical tools in materials science. A set of microscopic image/spectral intensities collected from many sampling points in a region of interest, in which multiple physical/chemical components may be spatially and spectrally entangled, could be expected to be a

Image processing is one of the most important applications of recent machine learning (ML) technologies. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs), a popular deep learning-based ML architecture, have been developed for image processing applications. However, the application of ML to microscopic images is limited as microscopic images are often 3D/4D, that is, the image sizes can be very large, and the images

Significant inventions about electron microscopes have been attained in the last two decades. One of the most important inventions is of the aberration-correction techniques, which continue to spread over research laboratories in the world. Thanks to the picometer-sized electron probe produced by the aberration correction, for example, the precision in crystal-structure analysis and/or chemical mapping

An automated acquisition system for collecting a large number of electron holograms, to improve the statistical precision of phase analysis, was developed. A technique for shifting the electron beam in combination with stage movement allows data to be acquired over a wide area of a TEM-specimen grid. Undesired drift in the hologram position, which may occur during the hologram acquisition, can be corrected

In this review, we focus on the applications of machine learning methods for analyzing image data acquired in imaging flow cytometry technologies. We propose that the analysis approaches can be categorized into two groups based on the type of data, raw imaging signals or features explicitly extracted from images, being analyzed by a trained model. We hope that this categorization is helpful for understanding

Single-molecule imaging analysis has been applied to study the dynamics and kinetics of molecular behaviors and interactions in living cells. In spite of its high potential as a technique to investigate the molecular mechanisms of cellular phenomena, single-molecule imaging analysis has not been extended to a large scale of molecules in cells due to the low measurement throughput as well as required

Lensless Fourier transform holography has been developed. By treating Bragg diffraction waves as object waves and a transmitted spherical wave as a reference wave, these two waves are interfered and recorded as holograms away from the reciprocal plane. In this method, reconstruction of holograms requires only one Fourier transform. Application of this method to analyze vortex beams worked well and

Various protein-labeling methods based on the specific interactions between genetically encoded tags and synthetic probes have been proposed to complement fluorescent protein-based labeling. In particular, labeling methods based on enzyme reactions have been intensively developed by taking advantage of the highly specific interactions between enzymes and their substrates. In this approach, the peptides

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) enable the visualization of three-dimensional (3D) microstructures ranging from atomic to micrometer scales using 3D reconstruction techniques based on computed tomography algorithms. This 3D microscopy method is called electron tomography (ET) and has been utilized in the fields of materials science and engineering

Image contrast between carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) in a CNT/PTFE composite film, which is difficult to obtain by conventional backscattered electron (BSE) imaging, was optimized to better elucidate the distribution of CNT in the film. Ultra-low landing energy condition (0.3 keV in this study) was used to prevent specimen damage due to electron beam irradiation. Signal

The theoretical conditions for small-angle inelastic scattering where the incident electron can effectively be treated as a particle moving in a uniform potential is examined. The motivation for this work is the recent development of a multislice method that combines plasmon energy losses with elastic scattering using Monte Carlo methods. Since plasmon excitation is delocalized, it was assumed that