Cytological and histological structures identification with the technique IBIL in elemental microanalysis

Abstract Ion beam induced luminescence (IBIL) is applied to the inspection of histological and cytological specimens, dried and placed in vacuum. It is shown to offer a way for a precise aiming of a proton microbeam on the sample for a subsequent traditional microanalysis. We used the nuclear microprobe of the Laboratori Nazionali di Legnaro and its IBIL facility to identify biostructures stained with some usual fluorescent dyes, capable of discriminating tissues and cells of different nature or different parts of a cell. To this purpose we produced low dose IBIL maps of the region of interest, employing a high sensitivity light detector. We describe the experimental set-up, propose a peculiar support for specimens, specify the properties of few widespread used staining procedures and evaluate their IBIL emission.