Why can't electron microscope replace optical microscope?
Electron microscopes use the principle of electron optics, replacing beams and optical lenses with electron beams and lenses, to image the fine structures of matter at very high magnification. Although its resolution is far superior to that of optical microscopes, electron microscopes are difficult to observe living organisms due to their need to work under vacuum conditions, and the irradiation of electron beams can also cause radiation damage to biological samples. Therefore, they cannot completely replace optical microscopes, and their costs and suitable working ranges are also different. I hope my answer can be helpful to you.
The reasons why electron microscopes cannot completely replace optical microscopes are as follows:
1. Electron microscopes are based on optical microscopes and add accessories such as CCD, display screens, or computers. This can only be described as video microscopes, where CCD replaces the human eye throughout the entire imaging process. Because in video imaging, electronic magnification belongs to virtual magnification, and in terms of pixels, photosensitive effects, and other factors, it differs too much from the human eye, so it differs too much from the visual microscope effect;
2. Another important reason is that CCD belongs to planar imaging, while the human eye, especially in binocular observation, produces a strong sense of three dimensionality. This is the reason why the depth of field effect of the two is too large compared;
3. Electron microscopes are mostly represented as electron scanning microscopes, which have much better effects than general optical microscopes. However, due to their high cost, they are rarely used in industry.
