CiteULike: dchen microscope

Visible Fluorescence Spectroscopy of Single Proteins at Liquid-Helium Temperature

Satoru Fujiyoshi — 2008-05-05T20:53:11-00:00

Physical Review Letters, Vol. 100, No. 16. (2008)

Fluorescence spectroscopy of single proteins at liquid-helium temperatures reveals a relation between structural dynamics and biological functions of the proteins. The technical difficulties in detecting visible fluorescence are chromatic aberration and optical background. They were overcome by a new optical design using reflective optics and employing two-photon excitation. The fluorescence spectrum of single green-fluorescent proteins taken at a temperature of 1.5 K makes a distinction between different metastable conformations that last for tens of seconds.

Imaging Surface Topography using Lloyd's Mirror in Photoemission Electron Microscopy

DE Jesson — 2008-05-03T18:26:53-00:00

Physical Review Letters, Vol. 99, No. 1. (2007)

We use Lloyd's mirror to modulate electron photoemission in photoemission electron microscopy. This results in the projection of Lloyd's fringes on to three-dimensional (3D) surface objects. An iterative reconstruction method is used to correct for distortions in the fringe pattern due to the cathode immersion lens, thereby providing a quantitative interpretation of surface shape. It is therefore possible to extract 3D height information directly from a two-dimensional, plan-view image. The technique is of sufficient intensity and contrast to study real-time changes in surface topography and we apply the method to study unusual contact-line dynamics during the reactive wetting of metal droplets.

Confocal microscopy of colloids

Semwogerere — 2007-07-27T10:53:20-00:00

Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, Vol. 19, No. 11. (2007)

Colloids have increasingly been used to characterize or mimic many aspects of atomic and molecular systems. With confocal microscopy these colloidal particles can be tracked spatially in three dimensions with great precision over large time scales. This review discusses equilibrium phases such as crystals and liquids, and non-equilibrium phases such as glasses and gels. The phases that form depend strongly on the type of particle interaction that dominates. Hard-sphere-like colloids are the simplest, and interactions such as the attractive depletion force and electrostatic repulsion result in more non-trivial phases which can better model molecular materials. Furthermore, shearing or otherwise externally forcing these colloids while under microscopic observation helps connect the microscopic particle dynamics to the macroscopic flow behaviour. Finally, directions of future research in this field are discussed.

Direct imaging of repulsive and attractive colloidal glasses

Laura Kaufman — 2007-06-25T01:35:08-00:00

The Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 125, No. 7. (2006)

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopy is performed on glassy systems of poly(methylmethacrylate) colloidal particles in density- and refractive-index-matched solvents. Samples are prepared with varying amounts of linear polystyrene, which induces a depletion driven attraction between the nearly hard-sphere particles. Images collected over several hours confirm the existence of a reentrant glass transition. The images also reveal that the dynamics of repulsive and attractive glasses are qualitatively different. Colloidal particles in repulsive glasses exhibit cage rattling and escape, while those in attractive glasses are nearly static while caged but exhibit large displacements upon (infrequent) cage escape. ©2006 American Institute of Physics