Electron microscopy (EM) of fully wet samples is a valuable tool for studies in the material, medical and biological sciences. In order to appreciate the natural structures of tissues or materials they should be examined in their native wet state, as opposed to a dry form that incorporates artifacts of sample processing. Viewing and analyzing wet samples at high resolution has undergone a significant improvement only recently due to the innovative WETSEMTM technology developed by QuantomiX.

The continued focus on improving materials, combined with the fact that it is now commonly understood that material properties are affected by characteristics at the atomic level, give rise to the need to characterize and image at the best resolutions possible. The (Scanning) Transmission Electron Microscope ((S)TEM) has the capability to image structures with atomic resolution and provides, at the same time, information on the chemical composition, bonding and electronic structure of the material. The nanoresearcher's continued need for the ultimate resolution has accelerated the development of next generation electron optics and technology.

The ability of infrared microscopy to combine the chemical fingerprinting of FT-IR (Fourier Transform infrared) spectroscopy with the spatial resolving power of microscopy has led to its widespread use in numerous industries during the past two decades. The recent incorporation of imaging detectors into infrared microscopes has led to an increasing range of applications for the technique. The increase in spatial information provided by FT-IR imaging microscopes has also allowed image analysis techniques developed in light or electron microscopy to be utilized for the first time. This article will discuss FT-IR microspectroscopy and present some of the current applications.The ability of infrared microscopy to combine the chemical fingerprinting of FT-IR (Fourier Transform infrared) spectroscopy with the spatial resolving power of microscopy has led to its widespread use in numerous industries during the past two decades. The recent incorporation of imaging detectors into infrared microscopes has led to an increasing range of applications for the technique. The increase in spatial information provided by FT-IR imaging microscopes has also allowed image analysis techniques developed in light or electron microscopy to be utilized for the first time. This article will discuss FT-IR microspectroscopy and present some of the current applications.

New and novel fast scanning microscopes with much enhanced image capturing and image analysis tools can dramatically extend the analytical power of traditional light microscopy by converting it to what one may call "virtual microscopy" (VM). One of the most important application fields of VM is connected to medical pathology. Here one can introduce the concept even to routine diagnostics in the day-to-day clinical environment. Further, over an intranet network, VM allows quick and easy access to the "virtual slides" database at any time and at any place. Another important aspect is the prospect that long-term archiving in large regional hospitals will be greatly facilitated.

This guide provides an introduction to calibrating transmission electron microscopes (TEM's) and scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM's), as well as (S) TEM's - instruments that can perform in both modes. While not technically correct, all these instruments will be collectively referred to as TEM's for the rest of this Guide. As with most things, there is a wealth of interesting facts and insights to be discovered by exploring this topic further. More detailed explanations can be found in the classic monographs by Edington or in textbooks such as Williams and Carter.

When preparing specimens for TEM analysis, it is important that specimens routinely be large enough to manipulate with forceps and cohesive enough to hold together as a single entity. However, anyone working in EM will have some specimens that are too small to see or centrifuged pellets that easily fall apart during processing. These specimens can easily be lost during a routine dehydration and embedding protocol and therefore cannot be sectioned. If the specimen to be processed is too small to handle or will fall apart, then precautions can be taken to ensure that it can be safely embedded for sectioning. Although this article is written with the main focus on biomedical electron microscopy, these handling protocols can be applied to any small specimens that have to be thin sectioned.

In 1965, Gordon Moore forecast that the microprocessor industry would continually scale to smaller feature sizes and the number of transistors would double every 18 months. Scaling below the 100nm node, combined with the implementation of copper and low dielectric constant insulators to increase the processor speed, has produced the situation in which SEM inspection no longer offers suitable resolution to image key artifacts and structures. The transmission electron microscope (TEM), once considered more of a development tool, is now in the forefront for process control and failure analysis, especially for measurements such as the thickness of semiconductor device non-planar barrier and seed layers

Automated analysis of Electron Backscatter Diffraction (EBSD) patterns for orientation imaging and phase identification in materials and earth sciences has become a widely accepted microstructural analysis tool. To briefly review, EBSD is a scanning electron microscope (SEM) based technique where the sample is tilted approximately 70 degrees and the electron beam is positioned in an analytical spot-mode within a selected grain. An EBSD pattern is formed due to the diffraction of the electron beam by select crystallographic planes within the material. The EBSD pattern is representative of both the phase and crystallographic orientation of the selected area. The pattern is imaged by a phosphor screen and recorded with a digital CCD camera and then analyzed.