FEI is proud to announce the two grand prize winners in the 2010 Owner Image Contest. After six months and more than 250 entries, the grand prize for Technical Merit goes to Dr Harald Plank of the Institute for Electron Microsopy (FELMI - TU Graz) in Austria for his April entry "Platinum Nanorods". The Most Popular Image, chosen from more than 1,100 online and text votes, is Dr Clifford Barnes of the University of Ulster, United Kingdom, for his entry "Spaghetti Junction". Congratulations to Dr Plank and Dr Barnes, and to all our entrants, for making the FEI 2010 Owner Image Contest a huge success!
Dr Harald Plank, Institute for Electron Microscopy - FELMI of the Graz University of Technology, Austria
Technical Merit Grand Prize Winner - Platinum Nanorods
"The FEI instrument we are mainly using is a NOVA 200 Dual Beam microscope which offers manifold possibilities and a high flexibility for additional custom made extensions. Similar experiments without such instrument would be partly impossible or require much higher efforts which make "Nanolab Workstations" an essential part of modern science and technology."
Image Caption: Platinum Nanorods on Silicon
The image shows an array of freestanding Pt nanorods on silicon fabricated by electron beam induced deposition from the gas phase. The individual rods reveal a base diameter of about 80 nm and a hight of 1 µm. The wavy appearance was actually an artifact but too nice to be ignored. Image was post-colorized by Margit Wallner (FELMI).
Imaging Details:
Instrument used: Nova DualBeam
Magnification: 50,000
Horizontal Field Width: 5.12 µm
Vacuum: 8x10^-6 mbar
Voltage: 5 keV
Spot: 98 pA
Working Distance: 5.2 mm
Detector: TLD
Dr Clifford Barnes, University of Ulster, United Kingdom
Most Popular Image Grand Prize Winner - Spaghetti Junction
"I have been primarily involved in the rapidly growing field of nanotoxicology over the past four years. I have found the FEI instruments we have in our FEI centre for Advanced Imaging including the Tecnai TEM, Quanta ESEM and cryo-DualBeam capable of providing unique information with the resolving power my work needs."
Image Caption: Spaghetti Junction: Sperm tails tangled up in a seminiferous tubule
The sample was a piece of rat testes tissue which had been fixed in formalin before post fixation in osmium tetroxide. The image was captured in environmental scanning electron mode using the GSED detector. This allowed the imaging of the sample in a hydrated form without the need for dehydration and metallic coating. As less processing is involved it is expected that fewer artifacts are present and finer details preserved.
Imaging Details:
Instrument used: Quanta 3D DualBeam
Magnification: 600
Horizontal Field Width: 500 µm
Vacuum: 3 Torr
Voltage: 12.5 kV
Spot: 4.0
Working Distance: 8.3 mm
Detector: GSED
Apple iPad Winner
Congratulations to Elizabeth Weeks of EMLABS, Inc. Beth was chosen at random amongst more than 1,100 online and text voters, and will receive an Apple iPad.
