Electron Phase Contrast Images of Molecular Detail

Electron phase contrast images with a resolution of at least 2 Å have been obtained using a modified commercial electron microscope. A “phase column” approximation for interpreting such images is briefly discussed and applied to images of graphite, evaporated carbon, and a synthetic polypeptide. Hexagonal features about 5 Å in diameter are attributed to the graphite unit cell imaged by the six first-order prism plane reflections. The image so produced is a next-nearest neighbor representation.