Timmermans F J, Otto C
Medical Cell Biophysics Group, MIRA Institute, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Rev Sci Instrum. 2015 Jan;86(1):011501. doi: 10.1063/1.4905434.
New developments in the field of microscopy enable to acquire increasing amounts of information from large sample areas and at an increased resolution. Depending on the nature of the technique, the information may reveal morphological, structural, chemical, and still other sample characteristics. In research fields, such as cell biology and materials science, there is an increasing demand to correlate these individual levels of information and in this way to obtain a better understanding of sample preparation and specific sample properties. To address this need, integrated systems were developed that combine nanometer resolution electron microscopes with optical microscopes, which produce chemically or label specific information through spectroscopy. The complementary information from electron microscopy and light microscopy presents an opportunity to investigate a broad range of sample properties in a correlated fashion. An important part of correlating the differences in information lies in bridging the different resolution and image contrast features. The trend to analyse samples using multiple correlated microscopes has resulted in a new research field. Current research is focused, for instance, on (a) the investigation of samples with nanometer scale distribution of inorganic and organic materials, (b) live cell analysis combined with electron microscopy, and (c) in situ spectroscopic and electron microscopy analysis of catalytic materials, but more areas will benefit from integrated correlative microscopy.
显微镜领域的新进展使得能够从大样本区域获取越来越多的信息，并且分辨率也有所提高。根据技术的性质，这些信息可能揭示形态、结构、化学以及其他样本特征。在细胞生物学和材料科学等研究领域，越来越需要将这些不同层面的信息关联起来，从而更好地理解样本制备和特定样本属性。为满足这一需求，人们开发了集成系统，将纳米分辨率电子显微镜与光学显微镜相结合，光学显微镜通过光谱学产生化学或标记特定信息。电子显微镜和光学显微镜的互补信息为以相关方式研究广泛的样本属性提供了机会。关联信息差异的一个重要部分在于弥合不同的分辨率和图像对比度特征。使用多个相关显微镜分析样本的趋势催生了一个新的研究领域。例如，当前的研究集中在以下方面：(a) 对无机和有机材料具有纳米级分布的样本进行研究；(b) 结合电子显微镜的活细胞分析；(c) 催化材料的原位光谱和电子显微镜分析，但更多领域将受益于集成相关显微镜技术。
