Downstream Plasma Technology for Cleaning TEM Samples on Carbon Films
Plasma cleaning has become an essential step in modern analytical electron microscopy, which requires contamination-free samples for imaging and elemental analysis. However, the dilemma for carbon film TEM grid users is how to plasma-clean the hydrocarbon contamination while preserving the carbon support film. In order to solve this problem, we have evaluated a new downstream plasma asher system, which uses a gentle and non-kinetic clean mechanism to minimize the side effects of plasma-sample interactions. The results show the system can effectively remove the contamination while preserving the carbon support film.
