Electron microscope

Article By:

Ramberg, Edward G. RCA Laboratories, Princeton, New Jersey.

Siegel, Benjamin M. Department of Applied Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

Last reviewed:July 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.224400

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• Electron microscope, published June 2020:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

A device for forming greatly magnified images of objects by means of electrons. Electron microscopes (Fig. 1) serve primarily two purposes: the visual examination of structures too fine to be resolved with ordinary, or light, microscopes, and the study of surfaces that emit electrons. The first function made transmission electron microscopes essential research tools in biology, chemistry, and metallurgy. The German engineer Max Knoll and the German physicist Ernst Ruska made the first electron microscope, a transmission electron microscope, in 1931. Beginning in the 1960s, a subsequent kind of electron microscope, the scanning electron microscope, came to play an increasingly important role in the study of the surfaces of solid objects at more moderate magnifications. Various emission electron microscopes have also been developed to serve more specialized research purposes. See also: Electron; Magnification; Microscope; Optical microscope

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