Phase Plate Conditioning Setup Dialog

This dialog allows you to set parameters for conditioning a Volta phase plate, namely exposing it to the beam for long enough to build up an appropriate charge on it. It also has a buttons to start the conditioning, either at the current phase plate position or after moving to the next position.  It has options to move the phase plate to its next position (if supported) and to do the conditioning at a different location on the specimen. The conditioning routine operates by lowering the screen to unblank the beam.  It returns the screen, beam blanking, and other scope settings to their original state when it is allowed to run to completion.  If you stop the routine during the conditioning or during a step before that with the STOP button in the Camera and Script Control panel, it will still do the steps needed to return to the original position and state before ending.  However, if you press STOP 3 times it will abandon those steps.

Beam settings to use

The radio buttons allow you select the how the beam is set up for the exposure.  The conditioning can be done either in Low Dose mode or not.  In Low Dose mode, there is a choice of using the Record area, the Trial area, or separate set of conditions that are recorded with the dialog open.  Exposure with the Trial settings is done off-axis, in the Trial area; the other settings expose the specimen on-axis.  Outside of Low Dose mode, only the separate settings can be used.

Set up mag and beam on scope

When Settings displayed here is selected, this option can be selected to start tracking the current microscope settings.  If settings already exist, they are imposed when the option is checked.  The previous state of the microscope is restored when the option is unchecked.

Expose with charge of n nC

With this option selected, the program will expose for a time that will result in the total charge specified in the edit box in nanoCoulombs.  This should give the most reproducible result and overcome variations in beam brightness, provided that the beam is entirely on the viewing screen.

Expose for time of n sec

With this option selected, the program will simply expose for the time specified in the edit box in seconds.

Delay if moving to next PP position

When the conditioning operation is to be done after moving to a new phase plate position, this entry specifies a settling time after moving to the next position.

Do conditioning at nearest Navigator point with

It is possible to do the conditioning at one or more specially designated locations instead of at the current location.  You can specify a Navigator point to be used by starting either its Label or its Note with the entry in the text box; select Label or Note to indicate which to use.  There can be several such items in the Navigator table; the program will find the nearest one and go to that one.  When acquiring through the Navigator, if a Realign to Item has already been done for the current item, then the program will take a reference image before going to the other location, do the conditioning there, and take a new image to align to the reference after returning to the acquisition point's position.  Currently this is the only situation in which this realignment will be done when conditioning at a separate location.  As for other tasks, this alignment is done with View images in Low Dose mode, otherwise with parameters based on the Trial camera parameter set. 

Action buttons

All of the buttons at the bottom close the dialog.  Press Close to save parameters, Cancel to discard them, Go to run the conditioning routine at the current location, and Next & Go to condition after moving the phase plate to its next position.  (Moving to the next position is available on the JEOL CryoARM and on Thermo/FEI scopes with a new enough version of Advanced Scripting.)