A microscope adapted to observe a sample is provided. The microscope includes a carrier, and the carrier includes a bottom base, an upper cover and a protruding structure. The upper cover is disposed on the bottom base and has an observing region, and the sample is adapted to be observed in the observing region. A first flow passage is formed between the bottom base and the upper cover, the observing region is located in the first flow passage, and a first fluid is adapted to flow through the observing region along the first flow passage. The protruding structure is connected to the bottom base or the upper cover and located in the first flow passage, and the protruding structure surrounds the observing region.

A method of observing a liquid specimen in an electron microscope includes: housing the liquid specimen in a space formed by a specimen stage and a lid member; and observing the liquid specimen, wherein the lid member includes a water retaining material, and a supporting member for supporting the water retaining material, and the water retaining material is provided with a through-hole that enables passage of an electron beam with which the liquid specimen is irradiated.

The present invention is in the field of a vacuum transfer assembly, such as for cryotransfer, and specifically a TEM vacuum transfer assembly, which can be used in microscopy, a sample holder, a vacuum housing, a sample holder stage and a sample holder coupling unit for use in the assembly, and a microscope comprising said assembly as well as a method of vacuum transfer into a microscope.

A sample collection device includes two substrates and a spacer. The two substrates are disposed oppositely. Each substrate has a first surface, a second surface opposing to the first surface, a first recess and at least one second recess. The two substrates are arranged with the first surfaces facing each other, and the first and second recesses are respectively located on each first surface. The first recesses of the substrates jointly form a first channel, and the second recesses of the substrates jointly form a second channel connected to the outside of the sample collection device. The first channel and the second channel are interconnected. The spacer is disposed between the two first surfaces for bonding and fixing the two substrates. A sample containing space is formed between the two substrates and the spacer. The sample containing space includes the first chancel and the second channel. In addition, a manufacturing method of the sample collection device is also provided.

An examination container includes a main body, a cover and a carrier stage. The main body has an accommodating trough for holding a sample. The cover is detachably connected to the main body to close the accommodating trough. The cover has a first through-hole penetrating through an outer surface and an inner surface of the cover, and includes a membrane arranging on the inner surface of the cover. The membrane has a second through-hole opposite to the first through-hole for passing a charged particle beam through the first through hole and the second through hole. The carrier stage is installed in a position corresponding to the second through-hole. The carrier stage is detachably arranged in the accommodating trough for a variety of examination purposes. An electron microscope using the abovementioned examination container is also disclosed.

Provided is an electron microscope with which a sample can be observed stably and with high accuracy. The electron microscope comprises: a sample stage; an electron optical system that scans an electron beam over a sample; a vacuum system that maintains the sample stage and the electron optical system in a vacuum; a secondary electron detector that detects secondary electrons emitted from the sample; transmitted electron detectors that detect transmitted electrons that have transmitted through the sample; and a control device that obtains a secondary electron image and a transmitted electron image on the basis of the secondary electrons and the transmitted electrons detected by the secondary electron detector and the transmitted electron detectors and stores the secondary electron image and the transmitted electron image. The sample stage is provided with cooling means for cooling the sample. The vacuum system is provided with a cold trap that sucks moisture from around the sample and a vacuum gauge that measures the degree of vacuum of the vacuum system.

Some embodiments are directed to an electron microscopy sample support including: a support member; and a metal foil including a porous region. The support member is configured to give structural stability to the metal foil, and the porous region of the metal foil is configured to receive an electron microscopy sample. Also disclosed is a method of manufacturing such an electron microscopy sample support, a method of imaging using such an electron microscopy sample support and an apparatus operable to perform such imaging. The disclosed microscopy specimen support reduces particle motion and/or sample charging in electron microscopy, and thus improve information available from electron micrographs. Appropriately designed and constructed supports may lead to an increased resolution per particle and increased accuracy of angular assignments in 3D reconstructions of, for example, biological specimens, enabling the determination of structures of smaller and more difficult proteins than was previously possible using EM techniques.

The invention provides a method of observing an organism or any other organic specimen in an aqueous solution in a scanning electron microscope. The method includes placing the organic specimen along with the aqueous solution between opposing surfaces of a pair of first and second insulating thin films facing each other, irradiating and scanning an electrically conductive thin film provided on an outward facing surface of the first insulating thin film with a pulsed electron beam an intensity of which is changed in a form of pulses, and acquiring an image according to a change in electric potential of an outward facing surface of the second insulating thin film, in which the composition of the specimen is analyzed based on the difference between the images corresponding to the pulsed electron beam applied at different ON/OFF frequencies.

Devices and methods are described for performing high angle tilting tomography on samples in a liquid medium using transmission electron beam instruments.

The present invention relates to a device and a method for the stoichiometric analysis of samples. In order to study the spatial distribution of different proteins in the plasma membrane of a complete cell within a short time frame, a device and a method are proposed for the stoichiometric analysis of samples. The object is established by means of a device for the stoichiometric analysis of samples, said device comprising a) a sample processing device comprising a sample holder for holding the sample, means for setting the temperature, means for adding and removing fluids (including gases) and at least one fluid reservoir, b) an electron microscope with a detector, and c) a computer-controlled process control system for controlling the means for setting the temperature and the means for adding and removing fluids (including gases), a computer-controlled and automated imaging device that captures images by means of the electron microscope, a unit that stores the captured images and an image analysis unit controlled by the computer.