Article
Article
- Biology & Biomedicine
- Biophysics
- Scanning electron microscope
Scanning electron microscope
Article By:
Hayes, Thomas L. Donner Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California.
Last reviewed:February 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.604400
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- Scanning electron microscope, published January 2020:Download PDF Get Adobe Acrobat Reader
An electron microscope that builds up images of samples via the scanning of the sample's surface with a focused electron beam. The idea of the scanning electron microscope (SEM) dates back to the 1930s, with a great deal of the pioneering development of the instrument then occurring at Cambridge University, England, during the years following World War II. The SEM (Fig. 1) became commercially available in 1966 and rapidly took its place as a useful addition to the battery of electron optical instruments used in both biological and physical research. See also: Electron microscope; Microscope
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