Recent Progress with the King’s College Scanning Transmission X-Ray Microscope

Soft X-ray microscopes and their biological applications

“…In 1972, Sayre proposed that electron beam microfabrication would be a good technique for zone plate fabrication (Sayre, 1972), and this approach has since been adopted by most of the groups active in the field (Ceglio et al 1983;Kern et al 1984;Tennant et al 1991;Charalambous & Morris, 1992;David et al 1992). The best zone plates today have finest line widths in the 20-30 nm range (Attwood, 1994;Charalambous & Firsov, 1994;.…”

<title>Soft x-ray contact microscopy using laser-generated plasma sources</title>

“…More recently, the use of a Schwarzschild focusing optic has been investigated [Masui 1993] although biological imaging has yet to be carried out. imaging has been limited to rabbit myofibrils at 3.27nm [Morrison 1992]; no other experimental details have been given.…”

An environmental sample chamber for X‐ray microscopy

“…Now with several of these microscopes in operation (Rudolph et al, 1984; Morris et al, Rarback et al, 1990) the remaining major technical barrier to be overcome is the design of functional sample holders that are both appropriate to the physical demands of the machine and will allow the special features of the method for examining biological material to be exploited. Until recently, primarily fixed and dried, or non-biological specimens requiring no special environmental conditions, have been imaged in these microscopes on either electron microscope grids or in sealed, inaccessible chambers (Morrison et al, 1992;Rudolph et al, 1992). Two groups (Gilbert, 1992;Williams et al, 1992) have been using a sample holder, or wet cell, designed at the California Institute of Technology, that is capable of maintaining a humid environment without submerging the sample in water during viewing.…”