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Disadvantages Of Electron Microscopy

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SEM - Scanning Electron Microscopy
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) is one of the most versatile instruments available for the examination and analysis of the microstructure morphology and chemical composition characterizations. It is necessary to know the basic principles of light optics in order to understand the fundamentals of electron microscopy. Light microscopy has been, and continues to be, of great importance to scientific research. Since the discovery that electrons can be deflected by the magnetic field in numerous experiments in the 1890s [1], electron microscopy has been developed by replacing the light source with high energy electron beam. The radius of Airy disk is defined as the distance between the first-order peak …show more content…

In addition to those signals that are utilized to form an image, a number of other signals are produced when an electron beam strikes a sample, including the emission of characteristic x-rays, Auger electrons, and cathodoluminescence

3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of SEM
In part, it is true that Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) present a many advantages, the more important are: (i) higher resolution of visualization microbial biofilms (Walker et al.,
2001) than other imaging techniques, typically 3.5 nm, (ii) able to measure and quantify data in three dimensions. However, this technique utilizes graded solvents (alcohol, acetone, and xylene) to gradually dehydrate the specimen prior to examination, since water of hydration is not compatible with the vacuum used with the electron beam. While any pretreatment can alter specimen morphology, drying appears to significantly alter biofilms due to EPS polymers collapsing (Fassel & Edmiston, 1999; Little et al., 1991). The dehydration process results in significant sample distortion and artifacts; the extracellular polymeric substances, which are approximately 95% water and the liquid loss led them to appear more like

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