Osmium plasma coating for observation of microfossils, using optical and scanning electron microscopes

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Abstract. A scanning electron microscope (SEM) is a very common instrument to observe fossil specimens. Although a low-vacuum SEM is now getting to be a common tool, still a conductive coating is required for observation of specimens at higher magnification. For SEM images of nonconductive fossil specimens, the specimens are usually coated with metals such as gold and platinum. The metal sputter coating method has a problem that the coating reduces the transparency of the fossil specimens when observed under a transmitted optical microscope. Therefore, the metal coating may not be suitable for observation of types in museum research collections. We applied an osmium plasma coating to the SEM preparation of microfossil specimens and found that the osmium coating neither shades transmitted light through the specimens nor masks the internal structures of the specimens. Also this method allowed us to observe specimens at high magnification. The osmium coating has an advantage over the metal sputter coating si...

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