Targeted irradiation of biological cells using an ion microprobe – Why a small beam spot is not sufficient for success
✍ Scribed by B.E. Fischer; K.-O. Voss; G. Du
- Book ID
- 103863433
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2009
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 437 KB
- Volume
- 267
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0168-583X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
When people plan to adapt their ion microprobe for the targeted irradiation of biological cells, they often claim that they expect a targeting accuracy in the range of their beam spot diameter, because they assume that reaching a sub-lm beam spot is the most difficult part of the job.
Although many microprobes have now a beam spot diameter of some hundred nano-meters or less, nobody reached a targeting accuracy below 1 lm. Besides obvious reasons, like mechanical or thermal instabilities, there is a more difficult problem to overcome: one still needs a light microscope to locate both the microbeam and the cells to be irradiated, and there are various light-optical effects, which can give misleading information about the position of the beam and the cells.