A plastic scintillator film for an electron beam-excitation assisted optical microscope

Abstract

A plastic scintillator film for use in an electron beam excitation-assisted (EXA) optical microscope is characterized. The thin film scatters an incident electron beam weakly and generates high intensity nanoscale luminescence excited by the beam spot. For high spatial resolution and signal to noise, an EXA microscope requires a thin high-efficiency scintillator film. Homogeneous plastic scintillators with thicknesses ranging from 60 to 2800 nm were fabricated on silicon nitride via spin coating. The emission intensity was examined as a function of film thickness and the accelerating voltage of the incident electron beam. The emission wavelength can be tuned by changing scintillator materials in the film matrix. To demonstrate a plastic scintillator film performance with an EXA microscope, time-lapse images of yeast cells were acquired.