Royal Microscopical Society

Sign In

Viewing Options
Search

Search this site

Home
Events
Publications
Outreach
Membership
About Us
Contact Us

Journal of Microscopy
An international and interdisciplinary forum for publication, discussion & education for scientists and technologists who
use any form of microscopy or image analysis.
The Journal of Microscopy publishes quality original research articles, review articles, Hot Topic papers, and letters to
the Editor, covering all aspects of microscopy and analysis. This includes cutting-edge technology and innovative
applications in physics, chemistry, material and biological sciences.
The Journal is for scientists and technologists who develop, advance or apply any form of microscopy, spatially
resolved spectroscopy, compositional mapping & image analysis.
The Journal of Microscopy is particularly interested in papers on original applications & developments in
microscopy.

Impact Factor: 2.15

ISI Journal Citation Reports Ranking: 2013: 3/11 (Microscopy)
Frequency: Monthly
Print ISSN: 0022-2720 / Online ISSN: 1365-2818

Aims & Scope

The Journal of Microscopy is for scientists and technologists that use any form of microscopy, spatially resolved spectroscopy,
compositional mapping and image analysis. This includes technology and applications in physics, chemistry, material and biological
sciences.
The Journal of Microscopy is published by Wiley on the Wiley Online Library on behalf of the Royal Microscopical Society.

Latest Early View Papers available online

Optical microscopy with flexible axial capabilities using a vari-focus liquid lens
Yufu Qu and Haijuan Yang
The microscope is one of the most useful tools for exploring and measuring the microscopic world. However, it has some restrictions
in its applications because the microscopes depth of field (DOF) is not sufficient for obtaining a single image with the constant
magnification in which the whole longitudinal object volume is in focus. For example, an off-the-shelf optical microscopy with a 10
objective can only observe samples placed at 4.0 mm and within 8.5 m depth range. These restrictions add complexity to using
microscope for observation. Samples needs to be placed on the working plane of a microscope first, and only the part of the sample
within the depth of field of the microscope is in focus. In order to acquire flexible working distance and extended depth range for
imaging, a flexible-axial-capability microscope is proposed in this paper. By employing methods of controlling the liquid lens in image
acquisition process and subsequent image processing, the axial imaging range is extended and three-dimensional observation is
realized. Experiments validated that the proposed flexible-axial-capability microscope can vary its working distance from 4.5mm to
12.5mm, which is a big advance to the fixed working distance of 4.0mm of an off-the-shelf microscope. The axial imaging range is
extended to 400 m which is 47 times an off-the-shelf microscope without liquid lens of 8.5 m and 20 times an off-the-shelf
microscope of 20m with liquid lens fixed on the rear plane of the objective with a constant diopter, and furthermore, the proposed
microscope can also deliver three-dimensional observations of samples.

Cryogenic-temperature electron microscopy direct imaging of carbon nanotubes and graphene solutions in superacids
O. Kleinerman, A. Nicholas G. Parra-Vasquez, M.J. Green, N. Behabtu, J. Schmidt, E. Kesselman, C.C. Young, Y. Cohen, M. Pasquali and
Y. Talmon
It has been shown that ultra-long carbon nanotubes (CNTs) spontaneously dissolve in superacids (particularly in chlorosulfonic acid,
CSA), and, at high concentrations form a nematic liquid crystalline phase, with individual CNTs arranged in long domains. This discovery
lays the foundation for fiber spinning from solutions of high quality ultra-long carbon nanotubes. The transition between the isotropic
and liquid crystalline phases depends strongly on the CNT type, concentration, and solvent strength. The need to image those
systems, which are difficult to handle, and are potentially dangerous to the microscope and the microscopist, has emerged when we
realized that superacids are the only effective solvent for carbon nanotubes and graphene sheets without the presence in solution of

stabilizers or surfactants.
In this work we describe a unique cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) specimen preparation and imaging methodology, suitable
with highly acidic systems that we have developed for direct imaging of CNT/CSA solutions. Controlled cryo-specimen preparation and
optimal imaging conditions allow imaging vitrified specimens without harming the equipment and personnel. The cryogenic transmission
electron microscope (cryo-TEM) methodology is useful for imaging of non-viscous and dilute solutions, while the methodology we
have developed for cryogenic scanning electron microscope (cryo-SEM) allows direct imaging of viscous CNT/CSA systems, including
liquid-crystalline phases and their development, from dilute solutions to concentrated liquid-crystalline CNT phases, used as the
""dope"" for fiber spinning.
The new cryo-EM methodology allows the study of basic scientific phenomena at nanometric level in CNT/superacid systems, such as
the CNT dissolution mechanism, direct observation of CNT filling with a solvent, correlation between CNT quality and self-assembling
into ordered phase, as well as measurement of nanotube length. While originally developed for direct imaging of CNTs and graphene
dissolution and for the study of self-assembly in superacids, these methodologies may be implemented in the study of a variety of
highly acidic systems.

A fast experimental beam hardening correction method for accurate bone mineral measurements in 3D CT imaging
system
Khodor Koubar, Virgile Bekaert, David Brasse and Patrice Laquerriere
The determination of bone mass in mice longitudinal experiments allow to study pathologies like osteoporosis or bone mass loss in
cystic fibrosis patients. Computerized Tomography (CT) is a very good method to perform this kind of bone mass measurements
compared to ultrasound, . CT consists in a X-ray tube and a detector. Due to the polychromatic nature of the X-rays produced by
the tube, there are artefacts in the recorded images (compared to monochromatic source like X-rays from synchrotron). In the
present paper we propose a method to decrease these artefacts. It allows to obtain more accurate bone mass measurements. We
validated our method on real mouse bones (femora and skull). The error was decrease from 5% to almost 0% in the case of femora
(from 7% to 3% in the case of the skull).

How important is the {103} plane of stable Ge2 Sb2 Te5 for phase-change memory?
W. Zhang, W.T. Zheng, J.-G. Kim, X.Q. Cui, L. Li, J.G. Qi, Y.-J. Kim and S.A. Song

Exploring the phase-change mechanism, structures and properties of chalcogenides has been currently one of the hot topics. Ge-SbTe chalcogenides are of tremendous technological importance ranging from optical data storage to phase-change random access
memory. Exhibiting the best performance for DVD-RAM in terms of speed and stability, Ge2Sb2Te5 is currently the most important
phase-change alloy. There exist three solid phases in Ge2Sb2Te5: amorphous, metastablerocksalt (face-centered-cubic, FCC) and

stable hexagonal (Hex) phases. The whole switching operation in optical data storage and electronic memories is based on the
following rapid cycling processes by either laser or electric heating: amorphousFCC (Erase/SET process)Hexliquidamorphous
(Write/RESET process). The stable Hex is an indispensable concern to bridge the aforementioned whole cycling framework. In this
work, structural correlations between the two crystalline phases were analyzed and the rich structural phenomena were unraveled.
Closely correlated with {200} plane of FCC phase, {103} plane of Hex phase of Ge2Sb2Te5 plays a crucial role in achieving fast phase
change process as well as formation of modulation structures, dislocations and twins in Ge2Sb2Te5. We propose that from a point

view of maintaining the ultra-high transition speed, (103) of Hex phase can effectively facilitate phase-change memory. This leads to a
novel concept that phase-change process can be treated as a nanoscale shape-memory, towards essential understanding of the
relevant structural features of Ge-Sb-Te chalcogenides.

Latest Short Invited Reviews available online

Techniques for RNA in vivo imaging in plants
Jens Tilsner
Electron microscopy of quantum dots
Thomas Walther
What environmental transmission electron microscopy measures and how this links to diffusivity: thermodynamics versus
kinetics
Thomas Walther
Wavelets: on the virtues and applications of the mathematical microscope
Michael Unser
Biological applications of cryo-soft X-ray tomography
E. Duke, K. Dent, M. Razi and L. M. Collinson
Nonlinear optical microscopy with vibrational contrast
M. J. Winterhalder and A. Zumbusch
Focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy in biology
C. Kizilyaprak, J. Daraspe and B.M. Humbel

Lay Descriptions
In order to make the science we publish more accessible, a second abstract or lay description in easy to understand non-technical
language has been developed. Lay Descriptions for papers published through the Journal of Microsopy will be included in infocus and
here on the RMS website.

Sign-up for free email content alerts

Keep up-to-date & see the latest papers as soon as they publish online... Sign up for FREE email content alerts

Useful Links

View the Journal online

Submit to the Journal
Follow the Journal on facebook and twitter
Home
Terms & Conditions
Site Map
Twitter
Facebook
Cookie Policy
Sign up to our Newsletter
Contact Us

2015 Royal Microscopical Society

. Built on Cubik.
Royal Microscopical Society
37/38 St Clements, Oxford OX4 1AJ, UK
t: +44 (0) 1865 254760 f: +44 (0) 1865 791237
e: info@rms.org.uk w: www.rms.org.uk