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16 Types of Microscopes With Parts, Functions, Diagrams
16 Types of Microscopes With Parts, Functions, Diagrams
Simple Microscope
A simple microscope is a type of microscope that uses a single lens for magnification. It uses a single
convex lens of a small focal length for magnification. In general, its magnification is about 10X. Its
magnifying power (m) is given by;
m=1+ D/F
where,
D = least distance of distinct vision
F = focal length of the lens of a microscope
2. Compound Microscope
Compound Microscope is a type of microscope that used visible light for illumination and multiple
lenses system for magnification of specimen. Generally, it consists of two lenses; objective lens and
ocular lens. It can magnify images up to 1000X. Its magnifying power is equal to the product of
magnifying power of the objective lens in use and the ocular lens. Mathematically it is expressed as;
m= D/f0 x L/fe
where,
m = magnifying power
D = least distance of distinct vision
L = length of the tube
fe = focal length of the ocular lens
f0 = focal length of objective lens
It is the most widely used microscope in biological fields like medicine, microbiology, life-sciences,
pathology, hematology, anatomy, molecular biology, etc.
Compound Microscope
Compound Microscope Parts
1. Illuminator (Light Source)
2. Diaphragm (Iris)
3. Condenser
4. Condenser Focus Knob
5. Rack Stop
6. Stage
7. Stage Control Knobs
8. Nose Piece
9. Objective Lens
10. Tube (Head)
11. Eyepiece (Ocular Lens)
12. Diopter Adjustment
13. Adjustment Knobs
a. Fine Adjustment Knob
b. Coarse Adjustment Knob
14. Arm
15. Base
16. Light Switch
17. Brightness Adjustment
It is also called phase condenser or sub-stage annular diaphragm. It is an optical part that focuses a
narrow hollow cone of a light beam on a specimen to be observed.
It is a black (light-absorbing) circular plate with a transparent annular ring/groove. The light passed
through the annular ring and fall on the specimen placed on the stage. In a microscope, it is placed
below the condenser.
2. Phase Plate
It is another optical part that selectively alters the phase and amplitude of light coming from the
specimen. It is placed above the objective rear focal plane.
It is a circular transparent plate whose surface can be divided into two portions. The portion upon
which the condenser annulus is focused is termed the conjugate area. The remaining portion is
collectively called a complementary area.
The complementary area is coated with light retarding material like magnesium fluoride.
The phase plate is of two types; a positive phase plate having a thinner conjugate area, and a negative
phase plate having a thicker conjugate area.
4. Fluorescence Microscope
Fluorescence Microscope is an optical microscope that uses fluorescence or phosphorescence to
generate an enlarged image of a specimen. It is a modified light microscope. This microscope can be
used to study living cells and cell organelles, identify specific proteins, antigens and immunoglobulin.
They have very high sensitivity.
Fluorescence Microscope
Fluorescence Microscope Principle
It works on the principle of fluorescence. When monochromatic light is passed on an object stained
with a fluorophore, it re-emits the light. The emitted light is detected to form an enlarged image of
the specimen.
The specimen is stained with a fluorophore and placed on the stage. High energy light is generated
and passed through an excitation filter. This filter allows only the light of a particular short wavelength
(UV region) capable of exciting the fluorescent molecule to pass through and block all other
wavelength light.
The filtered light is reflected to the sample using a dichroic filter. The fluorophore absorbs the light
rays which cause the electron to excite in a higher energy state. The excited electrons return to the
ground state releasing the excited energy in form of light rays with a longer wavelength.
The emitted light passes through the dichroic mirror and hits the emission filter. This filter blocks the
short-wavelength light and allows longer wavelength light to pass through ocular lenses to a detector
system.
In the detector, an enlarged image is formed. The background is observed as dark and the image
appears as bright.
Fluorescence Microscope Parts
A typical fluorescence microscope contains the following parts;
1. Fluorophore (Fluorescent Dye)
These are the chemical compounds that possess the property of fluorescence i.e. re-emit the light
upon excitation by light. These are combinations of several aromatic or planar compounds with
several pi (π) bonds. Most of them are organic compounds. They stain a wide range of biomolecules
and cellular structures. Some common fluorophores used are fluorescein, rhodamine, cyanine,
antraquinone, acridine orange, acridine yellow, auramine, malachite green, etc.
2. Light Source
Commonly mercury vapor lamp is used for generating UV light. Besides, xenon arc lamps, high-power
LEDs, and lasers are also used. They emit the light of high energy.
3. Excitation Filter
It is a band-pass filter that allows the light of a short wavelength that can excite the fluorophore to
pass through and block all other exciting and long-wavelength radiations. They are placed in an
illumination path i.e. in the path before the specimen.
4. Emission Filter
It is another band-pass filter that allows all the fluorophore emitted light to pass through and block
all other light in the excitation range. They are placed in the imaging path i.e. in the path after the
specimen. This ensures the darkest possible background and a brighter image with high contrast.
5. Dichroic Mirror (Beam Splitter)
It is a special mirror that selectively reflects or transmits the light of a specific wavelength. It is
positioned in between the excitation filter and emission filter at an angle of 45°. It reflects the light
from the excitation filter to the fluorophore and transmits the emitted light to the emission filter.
6. Others
It contains a detector system, objective lenses, ocular lenses, and all other parts of a compound
microscope.
Epifluorescence Microscope is the most common type of fluorescence microscope. In this type, the
excitation of fluorophore and detection of the fluorescence are done through the same light path i.e.
exciting light and emitted light both passes through an objective lens.
2. Confocal Microscope
Confocal Microscope is a microscope that uses a spatial pinhole to block out-of-focus light and uses
only light from the plane of focus to develop a 3-D image with higher resolution and image contrast.
It is also called a confocal laser scanning microscope.
It is a type of fluorescence microscope that is used to produce 2-D or 3-D images of relatively thick
specimens. In this type, the excitation light is focused on a specific spot of sample lying on the focal
plane. The focus spot is optically manipulated to scan the entire sample and generate a 3-D image. A
high-resolution image with better contrast is obtained.
This type of microscope uses laser light for illumination. The use of a confocal aperture and oscillating
mirror made it possible to focus the laser light on a particular spot. They neglect the background
noise from unfocused spots and prevent fast photo-bleaching and light scattering.
It is based on the optical sectioning technique where multiple 2-D images are combined to form a 3-
D image.
Laser light is used for illumination. Laser is passed over the fluorophore stained sample. The emitted
fluorescent light is passed through a pinhole located in the optical path. It selectively allows emitted
light from the focused point to pass blocking all other background lights. The light is converted to an
electrical signal by a photomultiplier tube. Computer software analyzes the electrical signal and
produces a 3-D image.
Confocal Microscope Applications
Used for detecting eye corneal diseases and fungal cells in corneal scrapings
Used in quality control of pharma products
Used in optical 3-D scanning and imaging
Confocal Microscope Limitations
Limited excitation wavelength and narrow bands
Expensive system
4. Multiphoton Microscope
It is a type of fluorescence microscope that uses more than one photon for exciting fluorophore
molecules. The multiphoton fluorescence excitation results in a high-resolution 3-D image. The most
common types are two-photon and three-photon excitation microscopy.
5. Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence (TIRF) Microscope
It is a type of fluorescence microscope that is used for selectively imaging fluorophore molecules in
an aqueous environment close to a solid surface with a high refractive index. High-resolution images
with better contrast decreased background and brighter clearer images are its advantages.
5. Electron Microscope
Electron Microscope is a microscope that uses accelerated electron, beams instead of light rays, to
illuminate the specimen and get the highly magnified image. In this microscope, glass lenses are
replaced by electromagnets. Due to the very short wavelength of electrons, this microscope produces
a very high-resolution image with magnification up to 10,000,000X. Very high-quality images with
very high contrast, revealing detailed structures are produced. Specimen up to 0.2 nm can be clearly
viewed using an electron microscope.
Electron Microscope Principle
An electron microscope uses accelerated electrons with a wavelength of about 100,000 times shorter
than visible light to illuminate specimens and produce images. The electron gun, usually a heated
tungsten or field emission filament, is used to generate a stream of high voltage (100 – 1000 kV)
electrons. These electrons are accelerated using an anode plate in a vacuum system and focused on
the specimen using aperture and electromagnetic lenses.
The electron beam passes through the specimen and interacts with sample components. Upon
striking the specimen, the electrons are scattered. The degree of scattering depends on the refractive
index or thickness of the specimen.
The scattered electrons from the sample are collected and passed through objective and ocular
electromagnetic lenses. These scattered beams are detected and transformed into highly magnified
images by the magnetic lenses.
Electron Microscope Parts
A typical electron microscope has the following parts;
1. Electron Gun (Electron Source)
It is a device that generates electron beams for specimen illumination. It contains a cathode and an
anode. The cathode is generally a tungsten filament. When the tungsten filament is heated using a
high voltage current in a vacuum, electrons are released.
A negative cap around the filament confines the released electrons into a focused electron beam,
which gets accelerated by the positive anode towards the specimen.
2. Electromagnetic Lenses
Unlike light microscopes which use glass lenses for magnification, the electron microscope uses
magnetic fields generated by magnetic coils (electromagnets). This type of lens allows electrons of
specific energy to pass through and block other electrons. There are three types of electromagnetic
lenses;
1. Condenser lens, which focuses the accelerated electron beam on the specimen as a thin and tight
beam.
2. Objective lens, which collects the electron beam coming out of specimen after interaction and
bends them to magnify the image.
3. Projector (ocular) lens, which further magnify the image generated by objective lenses.
3. Aperture System
These are pinholes that filter the unwanted electrons from the electron beam before and after hitting
the specimen. This system contains thin disks with a microscopic hole of 2 – 100 μm diameters. There
are two apertures, a condenser aperture below the condenser lens, and an objective aperture in
between objective and projector lenses.
4. Sample Holder
It is a platform with a mechanical arm for holding and positioning specimens in a fixed position. It is
made up of extremely thin carbon film held by a metal grid.
5. Vacuum System
The entire lenses, aperture, sample holder, and specimens are arranged in a closed vacuum column.
Highly effective vacuum pumps are used to maintain the vacuum. The vacuum allows electrons to
generate and travel without colliding and scattering from their path.
6. Imaging System
This system includes electromagnetic lenses for refocusing, enlarging, and projecting images, a screen
for image development, and a camera for image recording and display. The screen is usually a
phosphorescent plate that glows when gets stroke by electrons. The final image formed is called an
electron micrograph, and is displayed on a phosphorescent plate or on a monitor.
Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM) is a type of electron microscope that uses transmitted
electrons to develop an enlarged image of a specimen.
In this system, very thin specimens, not more than 100 nm (about 200 times thinner than specimens
used in the compound microscope), are used. Electrons are focused on the specimen using a
condenser lens. The electrons interact with components of the specimen and get emitted out from
the sample. The emitted electrons are passed through objective and ocular electromagnetic lenses
and projected on a fluorescent screen. When the electrons hit the fluorescent screen, an enlarged
image is developed.
It is the most commonly used electron microscope. It produces 2-D, black and white images with very
high resolution and magnification of 2 to 50,000X.
2. Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM)
Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is a type of electron microscope that scans a specimen with a
high-energy beam of electrons in a raster scanning pattern and develops a highly magnified 3-D
image of the specimen.
The SEM uses emitted, backscattered, and diffracted electrons for developing images reflecting the
characteristic morphological features of the specimen. Although it has less magnification power than
TEM, the image will be of higher resolution and sharper.
SEM contains some additional detector instruments like back-scattered electron detectors, secondary
electron detectors, and X-ray detectors.
Its imaging is based on emitted and scattered Its imaging is based on transmitted
electrons. electrons.
It can resolve objects as close as 20 nm. It can resolve objects as close as 1nm.
It is the electron microscope that uses the reflected beams of scattered electrons to develop an
image. It is a combination of diffraction, imaging, and spectroscopy technique.
4. Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM)
It is an electron microscope that combines SEM and TEM technology to develop an image.
5. Scanning Tunneling Microscope (STM)
It is an electron microscope used to reveal atomic and molecular details of specimen surfaces using a
phenomenon of tunneling electrons. Rather than penetrating the specimen and imaging the details of
the specimen, only the atoms on the surface of the specimen are scanned and projected as 3-D
images.
8. Digital Microscope
Digital Microscope is a type of microscope that lack an ocular lens and instead contains a digital
camera and screen to display image digitally. This is a modern microscope which is a computerized
system combining microscope with camera, monitor and computer software, and processor.
The image or video of a specimen can be captured and edited or shared. The software can perform
different analyses on the specimen like measuring size, magnifying, and focusing on specific details as
well as color correction and editing.
Besides the general parts of a compound microscope, it used a camera replacing eyepieces and an
additional display system.
The computer may be inbuilt or externally connected to operate the camera and image processing
software system. They can project 2-D and 3-D images. The software allows color contrast, brightness
control, graphic and video recording and sharing, and other manipulation of images.
1. Cantilever; it is a plate of silicon or silicon nitride that has a tip with radius at nanometer scale. This
is used to scan the surface of specimen.
2. Deflection measurement system; this system measures the deflection in cantilever tip and optical
beam. This measure of deflection is used for mapping the surface of specimen. PSPD is used to
record the change in deflection and reflection of light beam.
3. Force measurement system; this system measures the force of interaction between surface atoms
and cantilever tip. This system is operated on the basis of Hooke’s Law.
Used for analyzing physical properties like magnetism, friction, electric property, viscoelasticity, etc.
Used in identification of compounds, crystals and elements.
Used in pathology to study cancer cells
Used in imaging and studying macromolecules like proteins and nucleic acids
Acoustic Microscope Principle
The transducer converts the electric signal into ultrasonic sound. The sound waves are focused on the
specimen using a coupling fluid. The sound hits the specimen and some waves get reflected and
others get transmitted.
Imaging is done by two methods; Pulse-Echo mode and Transmission Mode. In Pulse-Echo mode, a
single transducer is used and the amplitude, phase, and time of the return of the reflected sound
(echo) are processed. While in Transmission Mode, two transducers are used. One receives a
transmitted sound wave and another receives a reflected sound wave. In both methods, a sample is
scanned pixel by pixel and a planar (2-D) image is developed.
X-Ray Microscope Principle
It is developed on the basis of the fact that when molecules of a matter interact with X-rays, they get
ionized. The electrons of atoms of ionized molecules get excited to a higher energy state. The excited
electrons return to their ground state emitting the excitation energy in form of X-rays. These emitted
X-rays are of specific energy and wavelength corresponding to the characteristic of the element.
X-rays are produced in an X-ray tube and focused on the specimen for illumination of the specimen.
When the high-energy X-rays hit the sample, some of it is scattered, some penetrate the sample and
some get absorbed.
The molecules get ionized and the electrons get excited to a higher energy state. The excited sample
emits the X-rays of a certain wavelength corresponding to the type of atoms in the specimen.
The image of the specimen is developed either by the photograph method or by the detector system.
In photographs, method image is developed when the emitted X-ray hits on X-ray plate or
phosphorescent plate. In a detector system, a Charged-coupled device or scintillator detector, or
other X-ray detectors are used to detect the emitted x-ray and convert them to electrical signals. The
electrical signals are processed by a computer and the image is developed on a monitor.
It is a device that focuses the produced X-rays into a parallel beam, and the process is called
collimation. The collimator contains two sets of tightly packed metallic plates separated by a narrow
gap of 0.5 micrometers or less. These plates absorb all the X-rays but allow a narrow beam to pass
through the gap forming a collimated X-ray beam.
3. Monochromator
It is an optical device used to polarize an unpolarized beam of X-ray. A monochromator may be either
a filter that allows it to pass a certain wavelength and absorb all other unwanted radiation, or crystal
(crystals of quartz, NaCl, LiF, etc.).
4. Detection System
It includes detectors that detect the emitted X-rays for imaging. There are different types of detectors
used;
1. Imaging Detectors
This system uses photographic plates or X-ray film to detect the emitted X-rays. Phosphor plates,
silver bromide, or silver halide plates are mostly used for developing X-ray images.
2. Scintillator Detectors
It is comprised of a scintillator and photomultiplier tube. Scintillators commonly used are sodium
iodide crystals activated with thallium. Others like crystals of naphthalene, terpineol, anthracene, etc
are also used. These scintillators when get struck by X-rays emit visible light. These visible lights are
detected by a photomultiplier tube and converted into electric pulses.
3. Semiconductor Detectors
It uses silicon and lithium plates as semiconductors. When an X-ray hits the semiconductor, an
electron and a hole are produced. Under influence of an electric field, these produced electrons and
holes are swept and detected by special electronic devices. These electric signals are processed to
produce images.
4. Other detectors like Geiger-Muller tube, Proportional counter are also used in some types.
Polarizing Microscope Principle
Normal light produced from illuminator is passed through polarizer which converts the normal light
into plane-polarized light. The polarizing microscope focuses the plane-polarized light on anisotropic
(substance having multiple refractive indexes) specimen. When the polarized light waves strike such
anisotropic specimen, birefringence (double reflection) occurs generating two waves, ordinary and
extraordinary waves, which are perpendicular to each other. These two waves get transmitted in
different phases. An analyzer combines these two waves and passes through the ocular lens to
develop an enlarged image.
It is a filter that polarizes the unpolarized light generated by a light source. It is placed between the
illuminator and specimen stages.
2. Analyzer
It is another polarizing filter that is placed in an optical path above objective lenses.
3. Accessory Plates
These include compensator and retardation plates. They determine optical path difference or relative
retardation between ordinary and extraordinary waves produced during birefringence. These plates
are produced before the analyzer. They produce more contrast in images and help to clearly visualize
internal structures.
4. Specialized Stage
Polarizing microscopes use a circular stage that can move in 360° directions.