New Technique For Quick And Reliable 3D Imaging Of Curvilinear Nanostructures, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne Study

Physical and biological sciences increasingly require the ability to observe nano-sized objects. This can be accomplished with transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which is generally limited to 2D images. Using TEM to reconstruct 3D images instead usually requires tilting the sample through an arc to image hundreds of views of it and needs sophisticated image processing to reconstruct their 3D shape, creating a number of problems. Now, EPFL scientists have developed a scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) method that generates fast and reliable 3D images of curvilinear structures from a single sample orientation. The work is published in Scientific Reports.