Greetings

The weather has been up and down here in Rochester, NY. It was 80F in March and then just a few weeks ago, our administrator Barb got about a half-foot of snow at her house south of town. Next time you order and talk to Barb, ask her if it is still snowing at her house.

M&M 2012 in Phoenix

We'll be exhibiting at M&M 2012 in Phoenix, AZ, this year; we hope to see you there. Again this year, we're offering travel awards of $250 to post-docs and grad students who are presenting a poster or a paper at M&M, with data that was collected on grids from TEMwindows.com. We'll be reimbursing up to three qualified awardees $250 each, on a first to apply and qualify basis. To apply, please send your M&M abstract to James Roussie at jroussie@temwindows.com by June 15, 2012.

If you would like to receive a FREE sample of our ultrathin 5 nm Silicon Nitride or 5 nm Pure Silicon TEMwindows, please mention this newsletter when you visit us at the TEMwindows.com booth.

Two of SiMPore's founders will be giving talks that this year's M&M conference. Christopher Striemer will be presenting a talk titled Microfabricated Zernike Phase Plates for Cryo-TEM on Thursday at 1:45PM in Room 224B (TEM Phase Contrast Imaging in Biological and Materials Science). Thomas Gaborski will present a talk titled Optically transparent and permeable microarrays for cellular assays on Wednesday at 2:45PM in room 226C (Biomaterials, Biological Techniques and Applications). Both talks are based on research conducted at SiMPore as part of two NIH grants that Tom and Chris have received.

Product Updates for 2012

New Shape

We've updated the form-factor of our TEM grids for easier handling. In response to your suggestions, we added two flat sides to our TEM grids that make them easier to pick up with tweezers and load into standard, 3 mm TEM sample holders. The grids are also much easier to safely remove from the sample holder with tweezers, if the user wants to recover the samples without damage.

New Conductive Coating

We've developed a premium high-temperature ultrathin carbon coating and have applied it to our TWO-SLOT 5 nm silicon nitride and 5 nm pure silicon grids for high-tilt imaging (our 9-window 5 nm products do NOT have this coating). This uniform carbon coating has low-background and helps dissipate charge, even at high-tilt angles during tomographic series. We've also reduced the width of the slots to 50 microns for enhanced stability during imaging and additional strength during sample prep. Initial feedback from users has been very positive – stable imaging and little charging, even at 70 degree tilt! Check out the following links for more info:

Silicon Nitride 5 nm thick TEM Windows (Two Slots, Conductive)

Non-Porous Pure Silicon 5 nm thick TEM Windows (Two Slots, Conductive)

Electron Tomography at 2.4 Angstroms

Researchers at UCLA and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory recently published an article in the 22 March 2012 edition of Nature titled, “Electron Tomography At 2.4 Angstrom Resolution.” This work represents a tremendous advance in the application of tomographic techniques. The authors used 5 nm thick TEM grids from TEMwindows.com as their substrates for this work.

Scott et al. (2012) Electron tomography at 2.4A resolution. Nature 483: 444-447.

Recent Publications using TEMwindows Grids

Below is a list of publications using our grids that were published within the last year. A full list is available at TEMwindows.com. If we are missing your publication, please let us know.

Juffmann et al. (2012) Real-time single-molecule imaging of quantum interference. Nature Nanotechnology 7: 297-300.

Scott et al. (2012) Electron tomography at 2.4A resolution. Nature 483: 444-447.

Alloyeau et al. (2011) Direct imaging and chemical analysis of unstained DNA origami performed with a transmission electron microscope. Chemical Communications 47: 9375-9377.

Carter et al. (2011) MEMS process compatibility of multiwall carbon nanotubes. Vacuum Science & Technology B 29)6): 4-12.

Kolmakov et al. (2011) Graphene oxide windows for in situ environmental cell photoelectron spectroscopy. Nature Nanotechnology 6: 651-657.

Meng et al. (2011) In Situ Analytical Electron Microscopy for Probing Nanoscale Electrochemistry. The Electrochemistry Society Interface Fall 2011, 49-52.

Park et al. (2011) Irreversible Chemical Reactions Visualized in Space and Time with 4D Electron Microscopy. J Am Chem Soc130(6): 1730-1733.

Wang et al. (2011) Metal-Catalyzed Growth of Semiconductor Nanostructures without Solubility and Diffusivity Constraints.Advanced Materials 23(7): 854-859.