Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 7, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms10945
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Funding
- Department of Energy [DE-SC0005132]
- National Science Foundation [CHE-1508667]
- National Science Foundation grant DMR MRI [0821796]
- National Science Foundation grant DMR MRI-R2 [959905]
- Kimmel Center for Nanoscale Science
- Irving and Cherna Moskowitz Center for Nano and Bio-Nano Imaging
- Division Of Chemistry
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1508667] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [0821796] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) [DE-SC0005132] Funding Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)
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Vibrational spectroscopy in the electron microscope would be transformative in the study of biological samples, provided that radiation damage could be prevented. However, electron beams typically create high-energy excitations that severely accelerate sample degradation. Here this major difficulty is overcome using an 'aloof' electron beam, positioned tens of nanometres away from the sample: high-energy excitations are suppressed, while vibrational modes of energies <1 eV can be 'safely' investigated. To demonstrate the potential of aloof spectroscopy, we record electron energy loss spectra from biogenic guanine crystals in their native state, resolving their characteristic C-H, N-H and C=O vibrational signatures with no observable radiation damage. The technique opens up the possibility of non-damaging compositional analyses of organic functional groups, including non-crystalline biological materials, at a spatial resolution of similar to 10 nm, simultaneously combined with imaging in the electron microscope.
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