development of cathodoluminescence microscopy for bio-materials

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K13548
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Biological physics/Chemical physics/Soft matter physics
• Research Institution: Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Minoda Hiroki 東京農工大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (20240757)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: カソードルミネッセンス / 走査電子顕微鏡 / 発光 / GFP

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the present project, the possibility of super high resolution optical microscopy is investigated. Focused electron beam is illuminated onto the enhanced green fluorescent proteins (EGFP) and the electron induced light emission (cathodoluminescence; CL) is detected to form "optical microscope".　The factors that affects the stability of the light emission from the EGFP were investigated. The stability does not depend on Ph of the sample solution. When glycerol is included in addition to the EGFP, the EGFP keeps to emit light, however, it is quenching without the glycerol. This clearly shows that the glycerol has an important role to stabilize the GFP.
An optical system to create CL images was constructed and the CL images of the fluorescent diamond could be obtained. However, the detection efficiency of the light is not high enough and more efficient light detector is necessary.

Free Research Field

電子顕微鏡学