A Singular Perspective on Chromosomal Replication: Studying Life Cells by Employing a Multi-disciplinary Approach

Investigating DNA replication in live E. coli cells using fluorescence microscopy and microfluidics.

Cathodoluminescence Microscopy of Nanostructures on Transparent Substrates

Cathodoluminescence (CL), the excitation of light by an electron beam, has gained attention as an analysis tool for investigating the optical response of a structure, at a resolution that approaches that in electron microscopy, in the nanometer range. However, the application possibilities are limited because the use of transparent substrates,...

Controlled Environment Specimen Transfer

Specimen transfer under controlled environment conditions, such as temperature, pressure, and gas composition, is necessary to conduct successive complementary in situ characterization of materials sensitive to ambient conditions. The in situ transfer concept is introduced by linking an environmental transmission electron microscope to an in...

Structured morphological modeling as a framework for rational strain design of Streptomyces species

Successful application of a computational model for rational design of industrial Streptomyces exploitation requires a better understanding of the relationship between morphology—dictated by microbial growth, branching, fragmentation and adhesion—and product formation. Here we review the state-of-the-art in modeling of growth and product...

High NA diffractive array illuminators and application in a multi-spot scanning microscope

Array illuminators generating spots with high NA at high efficiency are presented. They are designed via application of high-NA scalar optics methods, and implemented as periodic binary phase structures. These array illuminators are used in a multi-spot scanning microscope for scanning large sample areas with a relatively high resolution.

Microscope sees double

Some 350 years after Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s landmark invention, Delft has made another breakthrough in microscopy with a single device which combines optical and electron techniques

Nuclear Architecture: Image Processing and Analyses

Cancer is one of the most well-known groups of diseases that finds its cause in cells having chromosomal aberrations. How and why these aberrations can occur is one of the most important questions asked in modern molecular biology. In the last decades it has become clear that gene regulation in the nucleus, where the chromosomes reside, is...

Near field imaging of terahertz focusing onto rectangular apertures

We performed terahertz near-field experiments on single rectangular holes with various lengths grown on an electro-optic crystal substrate with ?/100 resolution. We find that the near-field amplitude becomes proportionally larger as the rectangle becomes narrower, strongly suggesting that a constant energy passes through even for a very narrow...

Structured illumination microscopy using extraordinary transmission through sub-wavelength hole-arrays

Fourier-transform terahertz near-field imaging of one-dimensional slit arrays: Mapping of electric-field-, magnetic-field-, and Poynting vectors

We present 2D measurements of the full THz electric field behind a sample consisting of multiple slits in a metal foil. Our measurements, which have a sub-wavelength spatial, and a sub-period temporal resolution, reveal electric field lines, electric field vortices and saddle points. From our measurements we are able to reconstruct the magnetic...

Measuring the near-field of extra-ordinary transmission through a periodic hole-array

The knowledge of the near-field of extra-ordinary transmission through hole-arrays is mostly theoretical; there is less experimental validation of the theory. We study the near-field properties by measuring fluorescent molecules that are immersed in a solution and their Brownian motion. The measurements are performed by filling the space above...

Towards terahertz microscopy

Terahertz (=1012 Hz) radiation is a form of electromagnetic radiation that is at this moment used rarely for imaging purposes. However, there are indeed reasons to assume that imaging with terahertz radiation could be very useful. First, many materials, such as paper, plastics and clothing are transparent for terahertz radiation, while they...

A novel concept for a mid-field microscope

When light passes through a hole smaller than the wavelength of the light, the transmission is very low and the light is diffracted. This however changes if holes are arranged in a periodic array on metal. In that case the light couples to surface plasmons; this results in enhanced transmission, spectral selection and a small angular diffraction...

Low-energy electron beams through ultra-thin foils, applications for electron microscopy

This thesis has discussed two electron microscopy applications that make use of ultra-thin foils: the tunnel junction emitter and the low-energy foil corrector. Both applications have in common that the electron beam is sent through the thin foil at low energy. Part of the electrons will scatter in the foil, thus causing a reduction of the...

Shot-noise limited detection sensitivity in multiplex CARS microscopy

In multiplex CARS microscopy the generated anti-Stokes signal is generated and detected simultaneously over a significant part of the vibrational spectrum. The signal-to-noise ratio of the thus detected spectra is limited only by shot-noise. This principle is demonstrated using a dilution series of 2-propanol in water. It is derived...