CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENT BIOLOGICAL SEM CHAMBER

扫描和透射电子显微镜都大大增加了 我们对周围各种组织和微生物的了解。 然而，传统的样本处理总是产生伪影或缺陷。 甚至完全改变了生物体的结构。 环境 室，可以让可视化的生物体在其自然的 国家将是一个非常重要的创新。 很少有研究人员 为扫描电镜建造了环境室。 不幸的是，这些房间 只适合每一个显微镜的限制。 我们第一阶段的总体目标是建立一个小型、紧凑的 将在大多数（如果不是全部）扫描范围内运行的环境室 电子显微镜在操作今天没有重大修改， 显微镜 将修改目前运行的气体反应阶段 放入一个原型环境舱 该原型将用于 确定两个差动泵的最佳大小和尺寸 孔，以允许1个大气压的压力存在于样品周围。 这项研究将继续确定一个 电子倍增器型背散射电子探测器， 产生最大的信号检测，包括一个专门的标本 用于保持试样活力的支架，加入铍 用于X射线显微分析的窗口和用于精确测量的热电装置 温度控制，最后分析不同气体对 以上特点。 第二阶段的资金将允许根据 在第一阶段发现的规格和启动的实验， 有机体 一家美国显微镜制造商已经表示， 有兴趣在市场上的阶段，一旦它是操作。

Both scanning and transmission electron microscopy have vastly increased our knowledge of the various tissues and micro-organisms around us. However, conventional specimen processing have always produced artifacts or even changed the substructure of the organisms entirely. An environmental chamber which could allow visualization of the organisms in their natural state would be a very important innovation. Very few researchers have built environmental chambers for the SEM. Unfortunately, these chambers only fit the constraints of each individual microscope. Our overall objective for Phase I is to build a small, compact environmental chamber that will operate within most, if not all, scanning electron microscopes in operation today without major modifications to the microscope. The currently operational gas reaction stage will be modified into a prototype environmental chamber. This prototype will be used to determine the optimum size and dimensions for two differentially pumped apertures to allow pressures of 1 atmosphere to exist around the specimen. The study will continue to determine the size and shape of a scintillator-photomultiplier type backscattered electron detector that will yield the maximum signal detection, inclusion of a specialized specimen support for maintaining specimen viability, incorporation of a beryllium window for X-ray microanalysis and a thermoelectric device for accurate temperature control, and finally analyzing effects of different gases on the above features. Phase II funding will allow the construction of the stage according to the specifications found in Phase I and initiation of experiments on living organisms. An American microscope manufacturer has already expressed an interest in marketing the stage once it is operational.