A microscope (Greek: (micron) = small + (skopein) = to look or see) is an instrument for viewing objects that are too small to be seen by the naked or unaided eye. The science of investigating small objects using such an instrument is called microscopy. The term microscopic means minute or very small, not visible with the eye unless aided by a microscope.

History

Microscopes trace their history back almost 1200 years with Abbas Ibn Firnas's corrective lenses, and it was Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics—which was written from 1011 to 1021—that laid the foundation for optical research on the magnifying glass.

The first microscope was made around 1595 in Middleburg, Holland. Three different eyeglass makers have been given credit for the invention: Hans Lippershey (who also developed the first real telescope); Hans Janssen; and his son, Zacharias. The coining of the name "microscope" has been credited to Giovanni Faber, who gave that name to Galileo Galilei's compound microscope in 1625,. (Galileo had called it the "occhiolino" or "little eye".)

The most common type of microscope—and the first to be invented—is the optical microscope. This is an optical instrument containing one or more lenses that produce an enlarged image of an object placed in the focal plane of the lens(es). There are, however, many other microscope designs.

Types

"Microscopes" can largely be separated into three classes: optical theory microscopes, electron microscopes, and scanning probe microscopes.

Optical theory microscopes are microscopes which function through the optical theory of lenses in order to magnify the image generated by the passage of a wave through the sample. The waves used are either electromagnetic (in optical microscopes) or electron beams (in electron microscopes). The types are the Compound Light, Stereo, and the electron microscope.

Optical microscopes

main: Optical microscope

Optical microscopes, through their use of visible wavelengths of light, are the simplest and hence most widely used type of microscope.

Optical microscopes typically use refractive lenses of glass and occasionally of plastic or quartz, to focus light into the eye or another light detector. Mirror-based optical microscopes operate in the same manner. Typical magnification of a light microscope, assuming visible range light, is up to 1500x with a theoretical resolution limit of around 0.2 microns or 200 nanometers. Specialized techniques (e.g., scanning confocal microscopy) may exceed this magnification but the resolution is diffraction limited. Using shorter wavelengths of light, such as the ultraviolet, is one way to improve the spatial resolution of the microscope as are techniques such as Near Field Scanning Optical Microscopy.