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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2015 Jun 12.
Published in final edited form as: Science. 2014 Dec 12;346(6215):1377–1380. doi: 10.1126/science.1259530

Fig. 1. Ultra-stable substrate design.

Fig. 1

The ultra-stable gold support comprises a 3 mm diameter disc of gold mesh (A) where a ≃500 Å thick layer of gold foil with a regular array of micron sized holes is suspended across the square openings in the mesh (diagramed along the section indicated). After application of an aqueous protein sample and plunge freezing at ≃80K, each hole contains a thin film of protein particles embedded in vitrified ice. Panels A, B and C show optical micrographs of the gold grid at low, medium and high magnification respectively; each hole is 1.2 μm in diameter and sets the scale for B-D. Panel D is a transmission electron micrograph of an individual 1.2 μm hole containing vitrified ice. Panel E is a typical high-resolution electron micrograph of apoferritin suspended in ice on a gold grid. Scale bars for the micrograph and magnified inset are 1200 Å and 120 Å respectively.