Status and Direction of Atom Probe Analysis of Frozen Liquids

Imaging of liquids and cryogenic biological materials by electron microscopy has been recently enabled by innovative approaches for specimen preparation and the fast development of optimized instruments for cryo-enabled electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Yet, cryo-EM typically lacks advanced analytical...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Microscopy and microanalysis 2022-08, Vol.28 (4), p.1150-1167
Main Authors: Stender, Patrick, Gault, Baptiste, Schwarz, Tim M., Woods, Eric V., Kim, Se-Ho, Ott, Jonas, Stephenson, Leigh T., Schmitz, Guido, Freysoldt, Christoph, Kästner, Johannes, El-Zoka, Ayman A.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aqueous solutions
Atom probe analysis
Biological materials
Development and Computation
Electron microscopy
Evaporation
Graphene
Heavy water
Light elements
Liquids
Micrometers
Scanning electron microscopy
Specimen preparation
Substrates
Temperature
Transmission electron microscopy
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Summary:Imaging of liquids and cryogenic biological materials by electron microscopy has been recently enabled by innovative approaches for specimen preparation and the fast development of optimized instruments for cryo-enabled electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Yet, cryo-EM typically lacks advanced analytical capabilities, in particular for light elements. With the development of protocols for frozen wet specimen preparation, atom probe tomography (APT) could advantageously complement insights gained by cryo-EM. Here, we report on different approaches that have been recently proposed to enable the analysis of relatively large volumes of frozen liquids from either a flat substrate or the fractured surface of a wire. Both allowed for analyzing water ice layers which are several micrometers thick consisting of pure water, pure heavy water, and aqueous solutions. We discuss the merits of both approaches and prospects for further developments in this area. Preliminary results raise numerous questions, in part concerning the physics underpinning field evaporation. We discuss these aspects and lay out some of the challenges regarding the APT analysis of frozen liquids.
ISSN:1431-9276
1435-8115
DOI:10.1017/S1431927621013994