Viewing the Electrode
A pulled electrode needs to be "broken" before it can be used. The tip of the pulled electrode is very tiny. In fact, it's usually closed off because the melted glass sticks to itself. So this pulled electrode has to be carefully broken to open a hole of a specific size in the end. The final electrode should look like this under a low powered microscope:
The very end of the tip is so small that you can only see it well under 430X magnification. You'll do this using the micromanipulator and microscope at the electrode breaking station. It can be difficult to find the electrode under the microscope. This is how I do it.
Procedure:
1. Carefully put the electrode in the electrode holder and tighten the holding screw gently.
2. The micromanipulator has 3 contols on it, one for each of the 3 dimensions. They are set up to move the holder up and down, back to front, and across (towards the microscope and back). Move the electrode down slightly so that when you move it in it will pass below the objective of the microscope without hitting it.
3. Move the electrode in, towards the microscope objective, until the fattest part of the electrode is directly below it. This wil be the easiest part to find in the scope.
4. You can focus the tip in the scope by moving it with the up and down control. Bring the electrode up slowly until it is very near the objective (almost touching it). If you can't see it, move the electrode back to front (towards and away from you) under the objective until you pick it up. When you see it, move it up and down until it is focused.
5. When you get an image of the tip focused in the scope, move it backwards until you see the very end of it.
When you see it at 430X it should look something like this:
Once you have the electrode in the field, go on to the next page and break it.
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