Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy

A method to reconstruct the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a block specimen using an SEM. This method is mainly used for soft materials such as resin-embedded biological materials and macro-molecule materials. The surface of such a block specimen is sliced off with a thickness of about several 10 nm to 200 nm using an ultra-microtome incorporated in the SEM specimen chamber. Then, the face exposed by slicing is observed and its serially-sliced images are recorded with the SEM. The slicing and SEM recording are repeated serially several tenth to several thousand times. By stacking those images, the 3D structure of the block specimen is obtained.

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