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News
Flash |
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Happy
holidays. We hope you and your families are
enjoying the holiday season and are looking
forward to a prosperous New Year.
2006 was a very successful year for Gatan. We
launched a substantial number of innovative
products aimed at providing our customers (YOU)
with more tools to solve problems they are facing
and helping them achieve the best results. Some
of these new products push the envelope of traditional
electron microscopy. The 3View™
is a revolutionary serial imaging instrument
in the SEM that bridges the resolution gap between
light microscopy (LM) and transmission electron
microscopy (TEM) for neuroscience applications.
Our demonstrations of the 3View™ data
at both Neuroscience meetings (Europe and US)
in 2006 drew record crowds to our booth. Now,
many scientists and researchers are exploring
its tremendous potential in other application
fields, such as polymers, botany, and materials
science.
In 2007, Gatan will have a new countenance.
What is the purpose of this new “face?”
It is to inform and show YOU, our customers,
and the EM community that “Gatan gets
it!” Our ultimate goal has always been
to understand YOUR problems and design the right
products to solve these problems. For over 40
years, we have demonstrated that we understand
the application criteria of our customers and
provide them with the right solutions for their
application needs. We have the Know-How knowledge.
Our products set the industry standard. So we
are proud to say: We get it!
So please look for our new corporate branding
and campaign on our website and in our ads,
exhibits, and product references. We hope you
like the direction Gatan is going.
KnowHow continues to be a key mode of communicating
application issues with you. The articles, authored
by our senior product staff, provide you with
practical tips to help you attain your application
objectives and make your work easier and more
effective. We hope you find these articles helpful.
We wish you a wonderful holiday season and a
successful 2007!
Ming Pan
Director of Marketing
Gatan, Inc.
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Fast
simultaneous access to multiple analytical TEM
data streams with GIF Tridiem and STEMPack
by
Mike Kundmann , Gatan Inc.
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You do analytical
TEM to reveal important micro- and nano-scale details
of your samples. You need all the structural and compositional
information you can get and you need it in short order,
preferably within a single, easy-to-use data acquisition
and analysis environment.
So what’s the best way to achieve such analytical
TEM bliss?
The answer is a complete and fully integrated analytical
TEM data acquisition system from Gatan. To find out
more click here. |
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Advanced
Techniques for Spectral Mapping
By Paul Thomas, Gatan Inc. |
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The
spectrum-imaging technique (or SI) is a powerful
and convenient tool for advanced materials characterization.
Using one or a combination of spectral signals (e.g.
EELS, CL and/or EDS), large multi-dimensional data
sets can be captured in a rapid manner. Data capture
using spectrum-imaging offers the major advantage
over simple point spectroscopy in that the spatial
information is acquired in addition to the spectral
data. Once acquired, spectral processing and fitting
algorithms can be used to extract physical properties
not as single values, but as a 2 dimensional distribution
map. Further, subtle information, not apparent from
a few images or spectra alone, can often be found.
Accordingly, powerful data-analysis and visualization
tools are required to enable the optimal extraction
and interpretation of results in a fast, convenient
and accurate manner.
Click here
to read the full article. |
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Application
Note: PECS Slope Cutting of Cast Iron
By
Richard Mitro, Gatan Inc. |
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Cast iron with spheroidal graphite
(SG) is made by adding trace amounts of magnesium
to the same raw material as grey iron melt before
casting. The graphite forms in a spherical shape instead
of flakes. The challenges when preparing samples for
analysis are retaining the graphite in its original
shape and size and keeping the graphite nodules retained.
A common preparation error in mechanical polishing
is the insufficient removal of smeared matrix metal
after grinding, which can obscure the true shape and
size of graphite.
Click here
to read the full article.
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Critical Specimen Focus in Biological Pathology and
Research Applications
*Kenneth L. Tiekotter, Dept. of Biology, University
of Portland, Portland, Oregon 97203*tiekotte@up.edu
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Anyone who has learned to use a transmission electron
microscope in the past 40 years can attest: one of
the most difficult aspects to master is that of specimen
focus. Everyone has gone through the process of finding
a hole in the substrate or imaging a small piece of
precipitate ‘pepper’ to view the contrast
of the Fresnel fringe to set under- or over-focus
conditions. This procedure is done at moderately high
magnifications using the focusing screen and the binocular
and wobbler. Furthermore, under-focus is necessary
to create additional contrast in an otherwise flat
image.
Click here
for the full article. |
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Cryo
Transfer Scanning Electron Microscope (Cryo-SEM) Made
Easy
By Marilyn Carey, Gatan UK |
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Cryo-SEM is now a widely used
technique for the observation of many sample types
from a host of different academic, R&D and
quality control facilities, for example, botanical,
biological, agricultural, pharmaceutical, petrochemical,
food, cosmetic, detergent and construction industries.
Cryo-SEM has two main advantages over other sample
preparatory techniques; samples remain hydrated
and preparation time is extremely short, typically
15 minutes or less. A modern FEG-SEM equipped
with Gatan’s Alto 2500 has enabled Cryo-SEM
to be regarded as a high resolution technique,
with the visualization of structures less than
5nm to be achievable at low accelerating voltage.
Click here
for the full article.
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XuM:
Image below the surface and add another dimension to
microscopy using the SEM
By Julie Sheffield-Parker |
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At M&M in August this year, Gatan
launched the XuM, a novel x-ray microscope which is
an accessory to a scanning electron microscope. Unlike
most imaging and analytical techniques available on
the SEM, the XuM allows the user to look inside the
sample structure rather than just examine the surface
or near-surface structure. This ability to image internal
structure means that many samples can be analysed
completely intact without the need for cross-sectioning
which would both destroy the sample and would raise
the possibility of introducing sample preparation
artefacts.
Click here
to read the full article.
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We
hope that you will find this news letter both interesting and useful.
If you do not, simply click here to be unsubscribed
and removed from our list.
Gatan
Inc. Corporate Headquarters, 5933 Coronado Lane, Pleasanton, CA 94588
Tel. (925) 463 0200 Fax. (925) 463 0204
Contact: info @gatan.com
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