Explore World of Nanometer with Iran-Made Transmission Electron Microscopes

TEM is a nanometer imaging microscope used to find the properties of nanomaterials. It can be also used to investigate cancer tissues and virology.

The microscope has three essential systems. First, an electron gun which produces the electron beam, and the condenser system, which focuses the beam onto the object.

Second, the image-producing system, consisting of the objective lens, movable specimen stage, and intermediate and projector lenses, which focus the electrons passing through the specimen to form a real, highly magnified image.

And third, the image-recording system, which converts the electron image into some form perceptible to the human eye.

Transmission electron microscopy is an analytical technique used to visualize the smallest structures in matter.

Unlike optical microscopes, which rely on light in the visible spectrum, TEM can reveal stunning detail at the atomic scale by magnifying nanometer structures up to 50 million times.

These features have caused TEM to be recognized as a very important tool in many advanced researches in medicine, physics, chemistry, crystallography, material science and biology.

The TEM microscope is similar to an optical microscope in the method of function, except that it uses electron beam instead of light beam.

What can be observed with the help of an optical microscope is very limited, while the limitation is removed if electrons are used instead of light.

The image resolution in TEM is a thousand times higher than that of an optical microscope.

Using TEM, it is possible to observe an object with the size of a few angstroms.

Therefore, the user can observe the components in a cell or different materials in dimensions close to the atom.

The device provides nanometer imaging and crystalography, while it can be used in the fields of pathology as well as biology.

The United States and Japan are currently the sole manufacturers of this type of microscopes, and Iran is now the third manufacturer.

The company started to design and manufacture the TEM microscope in 2011, and after 8 years and spending about $280,000 a prototype of the microscope was built.

4155/g