A low x-ray background low temperature specimen stage for biological microanalysis in the TEM.

The side entry specimen stage described in this paper is a development of a specimen stage for use at room temperature in the JEOL JEM 100 and 200 series transmission electron microscopes. The earlier specimen stage was designed to ensure that the extraneous instrumental contribution to thin specimen X-ray spectra is both small and quantifiable. As well as having a low X-ray background the new stage will also maintain the specimen at temperatures sufficiently low (down to 100 K) to minimize the loss of organic material due to electron irradiation. A new anticontaminator which provides a clean low temperature environment for the specimen stage is also described.