electron microscope

American  

noun

1. a microscope of extremely high power that uses beams of electrons focused by magnetic lenses instead of rays of light, the magnified image being formed on a fluorescent screen or recorded on a photographic plate: its magnification is substantially greater than that of any optical microscope.

---

electron microscope British  

noun

1. a powerful type of microscope that uses electrons, rather than light, and electron lenses to produce a magnified image

---

electron microscope Scientific  

1. A microscope that produces images of extremely small objects by using beams of electrons rather than visible light. Since electrons have a much shorter wavelength than light, the use of electron beams rather than light beams can resolve much finer structural details in the sample. Electrons are beamed at the sample and focused by magnets; a detector then converts the refracted or reflected beams into a black and white image.

2. See also scanning electron microscope

---

electron microscope Cultural  

1. A device that uses electrons instead of light to form images of very small objects, such as individual parts of small living things.

---

Etymology

Origin of electron microscope

First recorded in 1930–35

Example Sentences

In an earlier experiment, Doshi used a scanning electron microscope to examine nanostructures on a polymer film.

From Science Daily • Mar. 31, 2026

"Yes and I hope so," says associate professor Dr Franklin Nobrega as we look at images of my phage captured with an electron microscope.

From BBC • Jun. 27, 2025

Whatever process occurred to do this preserved the original brain tissue so well that individual neurons can actually be seen using a scanning electron microscope.

From Salon • Mar. 4, 2025

When viewed under a scanning electron microscope, the powder resembles tiny basketballs with billions of holes, said study leader Zihui Zhou, a materials chemist who is working on his PhD at UC Berkeley.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 23, 2024

As light glimmered around the Institute, Tom sliced pieces of monkey liver with his diamond knife and put them into the electron microscope.

From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston