UV Laser Ablation — An Improved Method of Sample Preparation for Microscopy

The commonly used microscopy sample preparation techniques - microtoming and razor blade cutting by hand - can generate surface artefacts such as (micro)cracks. In many cases it is impossible to diminish this problem by softening the samples by wetting, because some valuable information can then disappear and make the risk for artefacts even greater. It is especially important when the purpose is to study (micro)cracks, to ensure that the cracks have not been generated during the preparation. In order to avoid these artefacts, we have developed a new technique of preparing samples for microscopy using a high energy beam from a UV laser - laser ablation. This study shows the differences between samples which have been microtome cut, cut by hand with a razor blade and samples which have been laser ablated. The improvement that can be achieved is demonstrated by ESEM (Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope) images.