SEM
This is the primary type of electron used to generate the high-resolution topographic image in conventional SEM.
What are Secondary Electrons (SE)?
The primary goal of Cryo-SEM is to maintain the sample in its natural, fully this state.
What is hydrated?
The main advantage of this technique is that it allows samples to be imaged without requiring a conductive coating.
What are wet or hydrated?
In SEM, AI can automate this process, which traditionally requires a skilled operator to find the right focus and magnification.
What is focusing or alignment?
This is the state (solid, liquid, or gas) a sample must be in for TEM analysis.
What is solid (or specifically, a thin section)?
The high vacuum environment is necessary to prevent the electron beam from being scattered by these.
What are air molecules (or residual gas)?
The extremely rapid cooling in Cryo-SEM aims to prevent the formation of these damaging crystalline structures.
What are ice crystals?
This gas is often used in the chamber to help neutralize the charge build-up on insulating samples.
What is water vapor or gas?
This branch of AI is essential for teaching a computer to identify features like pores or nanoparticles within an SEM image.
What is Machine Learning (or Deep Learning)?
TEM uses this type of lens to focus the electron beam, similar to how glass lenses focus light.
What are electromagnetic lenses?
An SEM image is a two-dimensional map of electron intensity versus this coordinate system across the sample surface. What are the names of these two planes?
What is the x-y plane (or sample position)?
Due to the cold temperature and lack of a full vacuum, Cryo-SEM is often favored over conventional SEM for imaging these delicate biological or colloidal structures.
What are emulsions, gels, or biological samples (like cells)?
Besides water vapor, ESEM is often used to perform in situ studies of dynamic processes like corrosion or crystallization by changing this.
What is the chamber pressure (or sample environment)?
Using AI to automatically adjust the electron beam's properties and scan settings is part of this overall goal for SEM operation.
What is automation?
Unlike SEM's surface view, TEM provides an image of the sample's internal structure and this kind of analysis.
What is diffraction (or crystallography)?
This secondary signal, composed of high-energy electrons from the primary beam, is used to show compositional contrast (atomic number differences).
What are Backscattered Electrons (BSE)?
After freezing, a crucial step involves slightly sublimating the surface water to reveal underlying structures; this process is called etching by this method.
What is freeze-fracture (or freeze-etching)?
This component in the ESEM system is key to maintaining the high vacuum in the electron gun while allowing a low-vacuum environment near the sample.
What is the pressure limiting aperture (or differential pumping system)?
AI-driven systems can quickly compare a new sample image against a large database to perform this kind of analysis for quality control.
What is classification (or pattern recognition)?
The image resolution in TEM is primarily limited by the small wavelength of this quantum particle.
What are electrons?
This number, indicating the distance between the final lens and the sample, is crucial for controlling the depth of field.
What is the working distance?
The process of quickly cooling a sample to preserve its native state is called this.
What is cryofixation or vitrification?
This specific type of detector collects the signal in ESEM, utilizing the ionized gas molecules in the chamber as part of its amplification process.
What is the Environmental Secondary Detector (ESD) or Gaseous Secondary Electron Detector (GSED)?
AI image segmentation models in microscopy often use an encoder-decoder network architecture, a common example of which is this network, named for its shape.
What is a U-Net (or Convolutional Neural Network / CNN)?
This TEM-based technique allows crystallographic information to be collected from a tiny area of a sample, producing a pattern of spots that reveals crystal structure and orientation.
What is Selected Area Electron Diffraction (SAED)?