Beyond Morphology: Advanced Applications of Scanning Electron Microscopy in Materials and Life Sciences

Ifat Kaplan Ashiri

Electron microscopy is a powerful and versatile tool for imaging and analyzing solid samples, from natural materials to synthetic systems. When accelerated electrons interact with matter, they generate a range of signals—secondary and backscattered electrons, X-rays, and visible light—that can be collected under different accelerating voltages and vacuum conditions. This flexibility makes scanning electron microscopy (SEM) central to studies across biology, chemistry, physics, geology, and archaeology.

With a full suite of detectors - SE, BSE, In the column SE,  low vacuum SE and BSE, STEM, EDS, and CL - SEM enables multidimensional characterization. The choice of workflow depends on the sample: low-voltage STEM (2–5 kV) enhances contrast while minimizing beam damage in 2D organic and inorganic materials; low-vacuum conditions allow imaging of non-conductive biological samples containing nanoparticles, where BSE reveals particle distribution and InLens provides high-resolution surface detail; correlative methods link CL and SE signals to identify frozen biological specimens for subsequent 3D volume analysis.

In-situ SEM synthesis further extends these capabilities by enabling direct observation of dynamic processes at nanometer resolution. By modifying an environmental SEM heating stage into a growth reactor, we have tracked the real-time, surface-guided growth of ZnSe nanowires. This approach is now being applied to additional inorganic systems, opening opportunities to study synthesis pathways as they unfold.

AFM in-situ SEM provides another powerful dimension by combining nanoscale topography with SEM imaging and spectroscopy. Preliminary studies on newly synthesized organic and inorganic materials show how integrating AFM and SEM signals yields complementary insights into morphology, surface structure, and growth mechanisms.

Finally, SEM-based spectroscopies such as EDS and CL expand analysis to chemical and optical domains. Together, these approaches demonstrate how SEM delivers not only high-resolution imaging but also comprehensive, multidimensional insights across both materials and life sciences.