title: Read-out of soft X-ray contact microscopy microradiographs by focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope.
abstract: A novel focused ion beam-based technique is presented for the read-out of microradiographs of Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes generated by soft x-ray contact microscopy (SXCM). In previous studies, the read-out was performed by atomic force microscopy (AFM), but in our work SXCM microradiographs were imaged by scanning ion microscopy (SIM) in a focused ion beam/scanning electron microscope (FIB/SEM). It allows an ad libitum selection of a sample region for gross morphologic to nanometric investigations, with a sequence of imaging and cutting. The FIB/SEM is less sensitive to height variation of the relief, and sectioning makes it possible to analyse the sample further. The SXCM can be coupled to SIM in a more efficient and faster way than to AFM. Scanning ion microscopy is the method of choice for the read-out of microradiographs of small multicellular organisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milano, Italy. marziale.milani@mater.unimib.it
authors.forename: Marziale
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Milani
authors.forename: Damjana
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drobne
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tatti
authors.forename: Dimitri
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Batani
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Poletti
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Orsini
authors.forename: Aldo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zullini
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zrimec
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D007477:Ions; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D007477:Ions