Electron microscope

An instrument that forms images using electrons rather than visible light. Its short electron wavelengths enable much finer resolution than conventional light microscopes.

Electron gun: A source that generates and accelerates electrons into a beam. It supplies the beam that illuminates or scans the specimen.
Electron: A negatively charged elementary particle found in atoms and present in electric currents. Electron microscopes use these particles as illumination and signal carriers.
Light microscope: An instrument that uses visible light and optical lenses to magnify images of specimens. It offers simpler preparation and live imaging, but lower resolution.
Cryo-electron microscopy: A method that images rapidly frozen biological specimens with an electron microscope. It can determine molecular structures while preserving near-native hydrated forms.
Ernst Ruska: A German physicist who built an early transmission electron microscope and shared the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics. His work established electron optics as a practical imaging technology.
Electromagnetic lens: A coil-based lens that focuses or deflects charged particles using magnetic fields. Electron microscopes focus beams with magnetic fields rather than glass.
Electron wavelength: The wavelength associated with an electron, determined by its momentum through wave-particle duality. Short wavelengths help explain the potential for fine image resolution.
Atomic force microscopy: A scanning probe method that maps surfaces by measuring forces on a tiny tip. It can image surfaces without an electron beam or high vacuum.
Electron backscatter diffraction: A technique that maps crystal orientations from electron diffraction patterns in a scanning electron microscope. It turns microscope signals into crystallographic maps of materials.
Max Knoll: A German electrical engineer who collaborated with Ernst Ruska on early electron microscopes. Their collaboration produced an early instrument in 1931.

Linked from 24 pages