Ultramicrotomy of polymers at its best – ultra sonic

Sample preparation is a very important and crucial step for several microscopic methods such as lightmicroscopy (LM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) or atomic forcemicroscopy (AFM). Microtomy allows for the sample preparation of many materials and the characterization of innerstructures, facilitating well-defined specimen sectioning for either ultra-smooth surfaces (block-faces), or ultrathinsections [1]. Typical applications are the generation of 1) smooth surfaces for reflection-LM, AFM, infrared or Ramanspectroscopy; 2) the production of semithin sections with typical thicknesses of about 2 microns for conventional LM;and 3) ultrathin cuts with thicknesses of 100 nm and less for TEM. Depending on the application and material,ultramicrotomy can often comprise pre-preparative steps like hardening, embedding, staining for contrastenhancement or cooling down below room temperature [2].