high-voltage electron microscope

high-voltage electron microscope, type of electron microscope that has been constructed to operate at accelerating voltages in excess of the 200–300 kV normally used in the conventional transmission electron microscope. High-voltage microscopes now in commercial production are designed for accelerating voltages of up to 1,500 kV.

These instruments have several advantages over the conventional transmission electron microscope: (1) the theoretical resolving power of the instrument increases as the accelerating voltage increases; (2) thick specimens are easily penetrated by the beam; (3) chromatic aberration caused by energy losses and scattering in the specimen is decreased; and (4) specimen heating and irradiation damage of organic samples are decreased. Many metals and semiconductors suffer increased damage at these high energies, however, because the incident electrons may knock an atom from its correct position in the crystal lattice.

Although the gain in resolution at 1,000 kV is theoretically about two and a half times that of a 100-kV instrument, such increases have not been fully achieved in practice. It is primarily for the increased penetrating power and consequent reduction in chromatic aberration that the high-voltage instruments are used, as in the study of metals and alloys, for example. Some biological systems, such as bacteria and whole cells contained within a quartz chamber, may also be examined at high voltage. However, specimen damage due to the energetic electron beam is considerable.