High-sensitivity lens-coupled slow-scan CCD camera for transmission electron microscopy.
A lens-coupled slow-scan CCD camera has been built for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) applications. In this design, a leaded glass window, which is coated with a 20 microns layer of red P20 phosphor, is mounted on the bottom of the microscope. A lens assembly and mirror prism, located outside the microscope vacuum below the leaded glass, relays the image onto a back-thinned 1kx1k charge-coupled device (CCD) detector. This CCD is electronically cooled to below -30 degrees C during operation. It is found that X-ray irradiation, generally found to be annoying in fiber-optically coupled CCD cameras, is completely eliminated by this configuration. The collection efficiency of this system, although not as high as some of the fiber-optically coupled CCD cameras, is high enough to achieve single-electron sensitivity under a high-gain mode.
Fan
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San Diego Microscopy and Imaging Resource, Department of Neurosciences, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla 92093-0608.
Ellisman
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D004867:Equipment Design; D008854:Microscopy, Electron / Q000295:instrumentation*; D010781:Photography / Q000295:instrumentation*