Photoemission electron microscopy for connectomics
Photoemission electron microscopy (PEEM) offers a potential third modality for large-volume connectomics alongside transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). We image osmium stained, ultrathin brain sections on gold coated silicon at synaptic resolution using commercial PEEMs. At coarser resolution, we demonstrate that ultraviolet laser illumination enables gigavoxel-per-second acquisition rates without thermal damage. PEEM combines TEM-like parallel detection with SEM-compatible solid supports into a potentially scalable and cost-effective approach for large-volume connectomes.
Authors
- Sarah B. King (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0274-9894)
- Amin Moradi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5159-836X)
- Hengli Duan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4235-1450)
- R. M. Tromp
- Kevin M. Boergens (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5729-6007)
- Janek Rieger (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6057-2500)
- Sense Jan van der Molen
- S. S. Dhesi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4966-0002)
- Francesco Maccherozzi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4074-2319)
- Keshav M. Dani (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3917-6305)
- Gregg Wildenberg (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2550-5497)
- Narayanan Kasthuri (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3825-931X)
- Γαβριήλ Καρράς (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9629-8336)
- Michael K. L. Man (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6043-3631)
- Ruiyu Li (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7088-1451)
- Lola Lambert (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-3988-580X)
- A. S. Craig (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0008-1029-3595)
Institutions
- Leiden University (NL)
- Argonne National Laboratory (US)
- Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (JP)
- University of Applied Sciences Leiden (NL)
- Diamond Light Source (GB)
- University of Illinois Chicago (US)
- University of Chicago (US)
- FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2025-11-24
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2521349122
- Citations
- 1
- Primary Topic
- Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.55