Chromatic Correction

The Franklin’s chromatically corrected electron microscope, Knoll, is tailored for biological applications, particularly in liquid environments. This sophisticated instrument fitted with a new chromatic aberration (Cc) corrector design alongside spherical aberration (Cs) correction, enhancing its capability to acquire high-resolution images of biological samples.

Chromatic aberration occurs due to either of the following reasons: electrons of different energies focus at different points (a temporal effect), or electrons with the same energy focus at different points due to the varying refractive index of electromagnetic lenses (a spatial effect), or a combination of both. This leads to image blurring. By integrating both Cc and Cs corrections into our new instrument, we aim to achieve unprecedented clarity and resolution in imaging biological samples. This advancement is crucial for liquid phase electron microscopy  as the inelastic scattering by thick liquid layers causes substantial image blurring.

The instrument is also fitted with high-speed electrostatic shutters, enabling a reduction in the electron dose for imaging under low-dose conditions. Furthermore, the fast direct electron detectors as well as a fully featured post column energy filter in our instrument facilitate rapid imaging with a high signal-to-noise ratio, which is crucial for studying the structure of beam-sensitive biological materials.

The combination of these advanced technologies makes our chromatically corrected electron microscope exceptionally well-suited to study the structure of biological samples, particularly thick specimens such as those in liquid cells. The Cc and Cs corrected column together with the fast imaging capabilities of our instrument under low-dose conditions will enable us to study biological processes in their native states, such as observing protein interactions, cellular dynamics, and the behaviour of biomolecules in real-time.