Application of image-intensifier for the development of the direct observation of weak images of electron-microscope

电子显微镜提供了有关各种材料问题的信息。随着高分辨率电子显微镜的出现，其应用领域得到了极大的扩展。近年来，对标本夹具内部各种现象的原位观察引起了许多研究人员的兴趣，其中高分辨率的明亮图像是必不可少的。案例也经常遇到，我们只能获得相当厚的标本。在每种情况下，我们都需要如此强烈的电子束辐射或较长的曝光时间来在传统胶片上记录图像，因为样品有被完全损坏的危险。还有另一种情况，即使受到相当微弱的辐射，样品基本上也会遭受严重破坏。本研究的目的是开发一种适合于仅使用弱电子束通过在电子显微镜中包含质量已迅速提高的微通道板(MCP)来获得高对比度的明亮图像的系统。为了将微通道板安装到电子显微镜中，专门设计了一套安装和法兰。此外，还根据总体规划安排了高灵敏度电视摄像机、录像机和个人电脑。在本研究的最后结果中，与传统的记录相同图像的技术相比，我们可以将电子束的总辐射量减少到约1/50。MCP的电子放大效应使整个系统的亮度明显增加，分辨率明显提高。因此，我们目前的目的已经成功实现。

Electron-microscopy has provided information on a wide variety of materials problems. With the availability of electron-microscopes with a high-resolution its field of application has been extended greatly.In recent years, "in situ" observation of various phenomena within the specimen holder has caught the interest of many investigators, where bright images with a high resolution are indispensable. Cases are also often met with, which we can obtain only considerably thick specimens. In each case, we need such a strong radiation of electron beam or a long exposure time to record pictures on conventional films as the specimens are in danger of being totally damaged. There are also another cases the specimen essentially suffer serious damage even by fairly weak irradiation. It was the purpose of the present investigation to develop a system suitable for obtaining bright images with high contrast using only a weak electron beam by containing a microchannel plate (MCP), the quality of which has been rapidly augmented, into the electron-microscope. A set of mount and flange has been specially designed in order to include the MCP into the electron-microscope. Furthermore, a high-sensitive TV camera, a video tape recorder and a personal computer have been arranged in line with the total planning. In the last result of the present investigation, we could reduce the total amount of the radiation of electron beam to around 1/50 compared with the conventional technique to record the same picture. The effect of the electron amplification of the MCP has brought a marked increase in the brightness and a distinct improvement in the resolution of the whole system. Hence our present purpose has been successfully achieved.