Photoelectron Microscopy in the Life Sciences - Imaging Neuron Networks

Photoemission techniques like electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis are the leading electronic probes in materials science-but their impact in the life sciences has been minimal. A critical problem is that the lateral resolution in ordinary photoemission does not exceed a few tenths of a millimeter. This space-averaged probe is nearly useless for most of the fundamental problems in biophysics and biochemistry, which deal with microstructures in the submicron range or smaller. This limit is being overcome with photoemission microscopes, such as our scanning instrument MAXIMUM. The first scanning photoelectron micrographs of a cellular system with submicron resolution are presented. Minute details of neuron networks are imaged on MAXIMUM, thereby opening the way to novel applications of photoemission in the life sciences. The details include individual neurons, axons, dendrites, and synapses, and composite large-area scanning micrographs were routinely produced with a lateral resolution of 0.5-mu-m.