Optical microscope

Microscopic Characterization
Category General
Difficulty Level Normal
Audience Level General
Description Microscopic characterization methods refer to scientific techniques Which allow determination of both composition and structure of a material. Optical microscopy, scanning probe microscopy and electron microscopy are known as microscopic techniques. This course illustrates how microscopic characterization techniques are used.
Overview
Microscopic methods play an essential role in nanomaterials characterization. Microscopic and X-ray based characterization of nanomaterials techniques are used for the determination of surface morphology and dispersion characteristics of nanomaterials. This course deals with details of these aspects, and will provide a fundamental understanding of morphological tools, such as instrumentation, sample preparation and different kinds of analyses, etc.


Booklet
Description
 In this lesson, the useful application of optical microscope for imaging of small materials has been presented. Simply, an optical microscope is composed of a light source, a converging lens, an objective lens, and an eye lens. Depth of field and image resolution are two crucial parameters in the imaging process. Optical microscopy is not suitable for observing nanomaterials due to limitations such as low magnification, limited depth of field, and low resolution.
Mental Challenge
 Why a metal nanoparticle with a dimension of 50 nm cannot be observed through optical microscope?
Quizzes and Activities
 Activity: What factors do we need to consider in imaging of the samples which are not flat? 
Further Reading Sources

1. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/optical-microscope

2. https://www.nanophoton.net/raman-spectroscopy/microscopy

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8