Can a light microscope observe molecular structure?
The molecular structure can be observed is the electron microscope, now the magnification of the electron microscope can reach 15 million times.
In the 1970s, the transmission electron microscope is currently more popular a microscope, its resolution of about 0.3 nanometers, and the human ability to distinguish is about 0.1 millimeters, that is the development of the electron microscope at the beginning of the state.
By 1931, a German scientist with a modified high-voltage oscilloscope, he is a cold cathode discharge electron source as well as a combination of three electron lenses modified, modified to find that this oscilloscope can magnify the object to a few times, so he invented the perspective electron microscope, the invention of high-voltage oscilloscope has also confirmed to the world of the magnification of the function of the electron microscope.
To the beginning of the twentieth century, the United States scientists in the resolution of the electron microscope on the research has made new breakthroughs, and soon reached the modern level, this time in China, the electron microscope has also undergone a rapid development.
Now the magnification of electron microscope can reach 15 million times, while the magnification of optical microscope is only 2,000 times, which is also the difference between the electron microscope and optical microscope, so we can directly through the electron microscope to be able to observe the state of the atoms in the metal and semiconductor atoms in the neat arrangement of the situation.
The resolving power of the electron microscope is still far superior to that of the optical microscope. The large magnification of optical microscopes is about 2,000 times, while modern electron microscopes have a large magnification of more than 3 million times, so that electron microscopes can directly observe the atoms of certain heavy metals and crystals in the neatly arranged atomic dot matrix (note that you can only see the arrangement of the way to see the atomic structure of molecules, molecular level of the electron microscope can not be seen. What you can see under the microscope are the crystalline shapes of different configurations of molecules).
Current microscopes are basically unable to see the molecules, not because the magnification is not enough, but because the resolution of the optical microscope can not reach. The current high resolution STORM, probably around 20nm, which means you can see two points separated by more than 20 nanometers, and the image seen below 20 nanometers is a blob.
Molecules are basically at least nanometer scale, if you use electron microscope, it is not good, the magnification of electron microscope can already reach 10,000 times, and the resolution of electron microscope is nanometer scale, and at the same time, I want to tell you that the resolution is very important, if the resolution can not be reached, the magnification in the high is also useless.
