Fast imaging of millimeter-scale areas with beam deflection transmission electron microscopy

Zhihao Zheng, Christopher S. Own, Adrian A. Wanner, Randal A. Koene, Eric W. Hammerschmith, William M. Silversmith, Nico Kemnitz, Ran Lu, David W. Tank, H. Sebastian Seung

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Serial section transmission electron microscopy (TEM) has proven to be one of the leading methods for millimeter-scale 3D imaging of brain tissues at nanoscale resolution. It is important to further improve imaging efficiency to acquire larger and more brain volumes. We report here a threefold increase in the speed of TEM by using a beam deflecting mechanism to enable highly efficient acquisition of multiple image tiles (nine) for each motion of the mechanical stage. For millimeter-scale areas, the duty cycle of imaging doubles to more than 30%, yielding a net average imaging rate of 0.3 gigapixels per second. If fully utilized, an array of four beam deflection TEMs should be capable of imaging a dataset of cubic millimeter scale in five weeks.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6860
JournalNature communications
Volume15
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 2024

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Chemistry
  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
  • General Physics and Astronomy

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