What is the price of an electron microscope? All you need to know

Overview

• Post By : Kumar Jeetendra


• Source: Microbioz India


• Date: 26 Mar,2023

A microscope with a beam of accelerated electrons for illumination is called an electron microscope. Images are created by carefully manipulating electrons in a hoover and then capturing the resulting light pattern on a phosphorescent screen to create a microscope with a resolution on the nanometer scale. The first Electron Microscope (EM) was constructed in 1931 by the German engineer and academic professor Ernst Ruska (1906-1988), and the same principles that governed his prototype still guide modern EMs.

The Transmission electron microscope (TEM) and the Scanning electron microscope (SEM) are the two most common varieties (SEM). A transmission electron microscope projects an image onto a specimen that is thin enough for electrons to pass through (tissue slices, molecules, etc.). The TEM is similar to the common (compound) light microscope in many respects. The negative staining approach is used to prepare samples for TEM imaging of the organisation of molecules in viruses and cytoskeletal filaments, and TEM is used to view the arrangement of protein molecules in cell membranes as well as the interior of cells in thin slices (by freeze-fracture).

Electron Microscope Uses

1. An electron gun is a piece of equipment that can generate electrons.
2. Two different sets of condenser lenses are utilised in order to concentrate the electron beam on the object being examined.
3. In the third step, an extremely high voltage is applied between the tungsten filament and the anode, which speeds up the electrons and compels them to travel down the column.
4. In the fourth step, the specimen that will be analysed is shaved down to a thickness that is at least two hundred times smaller than the one that can be seen via an optical microscope. The holder for the specimen has been created using ultrathin sections that have been cut to a thickness of between 20 and 100 nm.
5. Fifth, as the electron beam passes through the material, the electrons are deflected in different directions based on the thickness of the specimen or the refractive index of the material.
6. The denser portions of the material create a greater scattering of electrons, which results in those portions of the screen seeming darker. On the other hand, the regions that can be seen through seem to have more light.
7. The intermediate magnified image is created when the electron beam emerging from the specimen is directed through a powerful objective lens. This causes the image to be amplified by a factor of two.
8. In step 8, the ocular lenses produce the final image, which is significantly amplified from the previous one.

Price of an electron microscope?

The price of an electron microscope can range anywhere from $75,000 to $10,000 000, and this is mostly determined by the type of instrument, its arrangement, its parts, and the function it serves. There are a number of other crucial components that play a part. The price of a brand-new Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) can range anywhere from $70,000 to $1,000,000, whereas the price of a used piece of equipment can range anywhere from $2,500 to $550,000, depending on the condition in which it is sold.

In 2009, Hitachi set the price of a desktop scanning electron microscope at $60,000, which had a voltage of 15 kV, was capable of 10,000 times magnification, and had the ability to magnify an image.