Microscope

Microscope is an instrument used to see objects that are too small for the naked eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. Microscopic means invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.

There are many types of microscopes, the most common and first to be invented is the optical microscope which uses light to image the sample. Other major types of microscopes are the electron microscope (both the transmission electron microscope and the scanning electron microscope) and the various types of scanning probe microscope.




The first microscope to be developed was the optical microscope, although the original inventor is not easy to identify. An early microscope was made in 1590 in Middelburg, Netherlands. Two eyeglass makers are variously given credit: Hans Lippershey (who developed an early telescope) and Zacharias Janssen. Giovanni Faber coined the name microscope for Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625.

• AFM, atomic force microscopy
• BEEM, ballistic electron emission microscopy
• EFM, electrostatic force microscope
• ESTM electrochemical scanning tunneling microscope
• FMM, force modulation microscopy
• KPFM, kelvin probe force microscopy
• MFM, magnetic force microscopy
• MRFM, magnetic resonance force microscopy
• NSOM, near-field scanning optical microscopy (or SNOM, scanning near-field optical microscopy)
• PFM, piezo force microscopy
• PSTM, photon scanning tunneling microscopy
• PTMS, photothermal microspectroscopy/microscopy
• SAP, scanning atom probe
• SCM, scanning capacitance microscopy
• SECM, scanning electrochemical microscopy
• SGM, scanning gate microscopy
• SICM, scanning ion-conductance microscopy
• SPSM spin polarized scanning tunneling microscopy
• SThM, scanning thermal microscopy
• STM, scanning tunneling microscopy
• SVM, scanning voltage microscopy
• SHPM, scanning Hall probe microscopy
• SSM, Scanning SQUID microscope

Of these techniques AFM and STM are the most commonly used.