title: Development of phase plates for electron microscopes and their biological application.
abstract: After slow progress in the efforts to develop phase plates for electron microscopes, functional phase plates with thin carbon films have recently been reported. An electron microscope enhanced with thin-film phase plates has practical advantages. It permits collecting high-contrast images of intact biological specimens without harsh and lengthy sample preparation, such as fixation, dehydration, resin-embedding, staining and thin-sectioning. This report reviews the state of the art for phase plates in biological electron microscopy and focuses upon the conditions required for functional thin-film phase plates. The current disadvantages of thin-film phase plates are also addressed and potential solutions are proposed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiological Science, SOKENDAI, Okazaki Institute for Integrative Bioscience and National Institute for Physiological Sciences, National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Okazaki 444-8787, Japan. nagayama@nips.ac.jp
authors.forename: Kuniaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nagayama
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry; D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D004583:Electrons; D004867:Equipment Design; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D008858:Microscopy, Phase-Contrast / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods; D015233:Models, Statistical; D055672:Static Electricity
chemical_list: D002244:Carbon