Comparison of optimal performance at 300keV of three direct electron detectors for use in low dose electron microscopy

Low dose electron imaging applications such as electron cryo-microscopy are now benefitting from the improved performance and flexibility of recently introduced electron imaging detectors in which electrons are directly incident on backthinned CMOS sensors. There are currently three commercially available detectors of this type: the Direct Electron DE-20, the FEI Falcon II and the Gatan K2 Summit. These have different characteristics and so it is important to compare their imaging properties carefully with a view to optimise how each is used. Results at 300 keV for both the modulation transfer function (MTF) and the detective quantum efficiency (DQE) are presented. Of these, the DQE is the most important in the study of radiation sensitive samples where detector performance is crucial. We find that all three detectors have a better DQE than film. The K2 Summit has the best DQE at low spatial frequencies but with increasing spatial frequency its DQE falls below that of the Falcon II

MULTIWIRE DETECTOR AND DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR TIME RESOLVED EXPERIMENTS

Un système pour effectuer des mesures cinétiques aux rayons X sur des muscles est décrit, de même que le logiciel d'acquisition de données et d'analyse des résultats. Plusieurs exemples d'application sont donnés.A system for making time-resolved X-ray measurements from muscle is described in this paper along with real-time software for data acquisition and software for further analysis. Several examples illustrating the use of the system are also given

Symmetry transition in the cubic phase of a ternary surfactant system

We report a small-angle X-ray and neutron scattering investigation in the cubic phase of the ternary system water/didodecyldimethyl ammonium bromide (DDAB)/octane. We have observed a systematic variation in the lattice parameter as a function of water content, which can be related to the change in interfacial area per unit cell with the aqueous volume fraction. Our results are consistent with a bicontinuous periodic constant mean curvature structure, and show a transition from diamond to body-centred cubic symmetry on increasing the water content of the system

Enhanced imaging in low dose electron microscopy using electron counting

We compare the direct electron imaging performance at 120 keV of a monolithic active pixel sensor (MAPS) operated in a conventional integrating mode with the performance obtained when operated in a single event counting mode. For the combination of sensor and incident electron energy used here, we propose a heuristic approach with which to process the single event images in which each event is renormalised to have an integrated weight of unity. Using this approach we find enhancements in the Nyquist frequency modulation transfer function (MTF) and detective quantum efficiency (DQE) over the corresponding integrating mode values by factors of 8 and 3, respectively

STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF THE CUBIC PHASE OF A TERNARY SURFACTANT SYSTEM

We have studied the cubic phase formed by the ternary system water/didodecyldimethylammonium bromide/octane using small-angle x-ray and neutron scattering. We have observed the existence of more than one symmetry in this cubic region, with a transition from primitive to body centred cubic symmetry on increasing the water content of the system. Our results are consistent with a bicontinuous periodic structure of constant mean curvature. We also report rheological measurements which indicate that the ringing behaviour of the cubic samples is associated with a sharp increase in the quality factor as audible frequencies are approached

Detective quantum efficiency of electron area detectors in electron microscopy

Recent progress in detector design has created the need for a careful side-by-side comparison of the modulation transfer function (MTF) and resolution-dependent detective quantum efficiency (DQE) of existing electron detectors with those of detectors based on new technology. We present MTF and DQE measurements for four types of detector: Kodak SO-163 film, TVIPS 224 charge coupled device (CCD) detector, the Medipix2 hybrid pixel detector, and an experimental direct electron monolithic active pixel sensor (MAPS) detector. Film and CCD performance was measured at 120 and 300 keV, while results are presented for the Medipix2 at 120 keV and for the MAPS detector at 300 keV. In the case of film, the effects of electron backscattering from both the holder and the plastic support have been investigated. We also show that part of the response of the emulsion in film comes from light generated in the plastic support. Computer simulations of film and the MAPS detector have been carried out and show good agreement with experiment. The agreement enables us to conclude that the DQE of a backthinned direct electron MAPS detector is likely to be equal to, or better than, that of film at 300 keV