Use of Electron Microscopy for Investigating Teeth Erosion - Essay Example Theoretically, a light microscope’s magnification power is infinite, while its resolving power is limited to 200 nm because of the fixed wavelength of photons in visible light (Carter & Shieh 2009, 135). Due to this limitation, the magnification of extremely minute objects at the microscale and nanoscale by a light microscope is not possible. On the other hand, electron microscopy uses electrons rather than photons. As electrons have very short wavelengths compared to photons, electron microscopes achieve a much higher resolution than what is achievable by a light microscope. In fact, the resolving power of an electron microscope is 1000 times that of a light microscope (Carter & Shieh 2009, 135). Electron microscopy is of two major types – Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). While both types employ electrons for magnification, they vary in their design and application.
