High Speed EELS and EFTEM Analysis across the Visual Cortex

Unstained biological materials are traditionally difficult to analyze in the TEM as they show very little contrast and more importantly, they are quite susceptible to electron beam damage if extra care is not taken when performing the experiment. Biological materials are almost entirely composed of carbon but in some areas they show other elements in small amounts. Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) is well suited to studying such materials given EELS high sensitivity to light element and its high collection efficiency. The paper shows how quantitative information can be obtained from a region in a TEM sample across a blood vessel capillary region.