Cutting Metal inside an Electron Microscope

[rwm]

Yes, but is it a true action shot somehow or time laps like the first one? I cannot imagine using a real cutting setup inside an SEM.

 

[homebrewed]

Yes, but is it a true action shot somehow or time laps like the first one? I cannot imagine using a real cutting setup inside an SEM.

The video page on youtube had lots of questions in the comments section but no real answers. That is, except for the audio track, indicated to be from Mozart's "The Magic Flute"

 

[Eddyde]

One of the electron microscope's great advantages is its depth of focus. Optical systems are more limited so high magnification images of scenes that include objects with considerable variation in depth can be difficult or impossible to achieve with them. There are optical "telemiscroscopes" but even so their depth of focus isn't comparable to electron microscopes.

That makes sense. However, I would imagine if the microscope/camera had an aperture and you closed it down a bit, you would increase the depth of field? Of course that would mean needing more light on the object but that shouldn't be a problem.

 

[homebrewed]

That makes sense. However, I would imagine if the microscope/camera had an aperture and you closed it down a bit, you would increase the depth of field? Of course that would mean needing more light on the object but that shouldn't be a problem.

Stopping down would increase the depth of field, but it still is nowhere what a SEM can achieve. There are methods to increase the effective depth of field of optical microscopes, which take "slices" of the image as the object is stepped up & down, then combine the slices into a single image. This requires a computer controlled stage and fairly complex S/W to get good results. And, unsurprisingly, it turns an expensive microscope into a _really_ expensive microscope. But If you want magnifications higher than about 5,000X you really have no option but a $EM.