Development of TV-rate CCD Cameras for in-situ Electron Microscopy

Abstract

Abstract We have all heard the quote “A picture is worth a thousand words” when describing how much information can really be represented by a single image. Many of you may have written and published pages of results all based sometimes on a single piece of important data such as an electron micrograph. Of course, if one image is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, how much would 30 or more be worth? With the advent of better performing electronics and development of newer CCD (charge couple device) technology, it is now possible to extend the famous saying and complete it with “but a movie tells the whole story”. By extending the single acquired image into a series of fast-acquired frames, movie creation is possible. This capability allows us to record dynamic events in many different applications, leading towards sharing the sequence of images and telling a more complete story that cannot be done with one image alone. A brief background on how this technique is used in electron microscopy follows.