Topic summary
Electron microscope
An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of "illumination". It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing it to produce magnified images or electron diffraction patterns. As the wavelength of an electron can be more than 100,000 times smaller than that of visible light, electron microscopes have a much higher resolution of about 0.1 nm, which compares to about 200 nm for light microscopes. Electron microscope may refer to:
- Transmission electron microscope (TEM) where swift electrons go through a thin sample
- Scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) which is similar to TEM with a scanned electron probe
- Scanning electron microscope (SEM) which is similar to STEM, but with thick samples
- Electron microprobe similar to a SEM, but more for chemical analysis
- Low-energy electron microscope (LEEM), used to image surfaces
- Photoemission electron microscope (PEEM) which is similar to LEEM using electrons emitted from surfaces by photons
Additional details can be found in the above links.
This article contains some general information about different types of these instruments, mainly about transmission and scanning electron microscopes with a little information about other types and brief sections with links to longer articles about some of the ways to use these instruments, how to make samples and some of the limitations.