“Hollow Cone Electron Imaging for Single Particle 3D Reconstruction of Proteins”. Tsai C-Y, Chang Y-C, Lobato I, Van Dyck D, Chen F-R, Scientific reports 6, 27701 (2016). http://doi.org/10.1038/srep27701
Abstract: The main bottlenecks for high-resolution biological imaging in electron microscopy are radiation sensitivity and low contrast. The phase contrast at low spatial frequencies can be enhanced by using a large defocus but this strongly reduces the resolution. Recently, phase plates have been developed to enhance the contrast at small defocus but electrical charging remains a problem. Single particle cryo-electron microscopy is mostly used to minimize the radiation damage and to enhance the resolution of the 3D reconstructions but it requires averaging images of a massive number of individual particles. Here we present a new route to achieve the same goals by hollow cone dark field imaging using thermal diffuse scattered electrons giving about a 4 times contrast increase as compared to bright field imaging. We demonstrate the 3D reconstruction of a stained GroEL particle can yield about 13.5 A resolution but using a strongly reduced number of images.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT); Vision lab
Impact Factor: 4.259
DOI: 10.1038/srep27701
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“Controlled growth of hexagonal gold nanostructures during thermally induced self-assembling on Ge(001) surface”. Jany BR, Gauquelin N, Willhammar T, Nikiel M, van den Bos KHW, Janas A, Szajna K, Verbeeck J, Van Aert S, Van Tendeloo G, Krok F, Scientific reports 7, 42420 (2017). http://doi.org/10.1038/srep42420
Abstract: Nano-sized gold has become an important material in various fields of science and technology, where control over the size and crystallography is desired to tailor the functionality. Gold crystallizes in the face-centered cubic (fcc) phase, and its hexagonal closed packed (hcp) structure is a very unusual and rare phase. Stable Au hcp phase has been reported to form in nanoparticles at the tips of some Ge nanowires. It has also recently been synthesized in the form of thin graphene-supported sheets which are unstable under electron beam irradiation. Here, we show that stable hcp Au 3D nanostructures with well-defined crystallographic orientation and size can be systematically created in a process of thermally induced self-assembly of thin Au layer on Ge(001) monocrystal. The Au hcp crystallite is present in each Au nanostructure and has been characterized by different electron microscopy techniques. We report that a careful heat treatment above the eutectic melting temperature and a controlled cooling is required to form the hcp phase of Au on a Ge single crystal. This new method gives scientific prospects to obtain stable Au hcp phase for future applications in a rather simple manner as well as redefine the phase diagram of Gold with Germanium.
Keywords: A1 Journal article; Electron microscopy for materials research (EMAT)
Impact Factor: 4.259
Times cited: 25
DOI: 10.1038/srep42420
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