Insight Chips has developed a high-tilt holder for tomograpghy and 3D electron diffraction.
The holder is also capable of 4-inlet flow control, and temperature control up to 120 C can be added to the solution (working on reaching 275 C as well!).
This holder and chip are thus an upgrade to our existing solutions as it can do everything our regular non-high-tilt chips can do, and more.
The novelty of the holder lies in making a long, thin chip, which can be clamped at its base and extend in through the pole piece without any lid or screws surrounding the chip in the imaging area. This allows to insert about a ~800 µm thick and 4 mm wide piece in between the TEM pole piece thus allowing for max tilt range in most TEMs without any chance of collision.
The reason for the limit at 70 degrees, although TEMs can typically tilt to higher angles, is due to self-shadowing coming from the chip itself. So, although the holder can keep rotating until the maximum range, the transmission through the membrane is obstructed at around 70 degrees.
In order to create minimal self-shadowing when tilting, the membrane is extremely wide, 1.2 mm!
Below is an optical microscopy image of our All-in-One chip design featuring channels for mixing, particle trapping, and various types of flow:
A number of benefits exist to making the chip/tip configuration so thin and narrow:
Gert De Bont from EMAT, University of Antwerp, has made this video showcasing the holder and chip as well as a real tomography reconstruction from data gathered by Prof. Sara Bals' PhD candidates Marta Zarzuela Amor and Robin Girod.
The sample is gold nanorods which are the key element of the ERC funded project CHIRAL PRO which you can read more about on the project-dedicated website chiral-pro.com
Insight Chips thanks Prof. Sara Bals and her team for testing and showcasing our product!
