What does «microscopio electrónico» mean in Spanish?
- Microscope that instead of luminous rays (used by the optical microscope), uses cathode rays (electrons) that allow to obtain magnifications of 500,000 diameters (the most modern ones up to 10,000,000x and a resolution of 50 picometers) and is widely used in metallography. Optical microscopes instead reach only 2000 magnifications and a resolution of 200 nanometers. This is because the wavelength of electrons is much shorter than that of visible light photons. Electron microscopes have optical electron lens systems that are analogous to the glass lenses of a light optical microscope.