What are electron microscopes used for?
Electron microscopes shift the boundaries of human knowledge in many fields; they are used mainly in medicine, research into materials, the aerospace, automotive and semiconductor industries, criminology and the mining of minerals. Electron microscopes are an indispensable aid in the production of new chips, thanks to which mobile phones, tablets or computers are more powerful. They have also been used in battery development.

What is the difference between an optical and an electron microscope?
While the optical microscope uses rays of light for imaging, electron microscopes replace light with electrons and use electromagnetic lenses instead of glass lenses. And because the wavelength of the electrons is significantly shorter than that of visible light, the electron microscope also has a higher resolution, resulting in much higher effective magnification than with an optical microscope. The approach is comparable to the idea that you are looking at the earth from the moon and you can also distinguish the leaves on the trees. With the help of electron microscopes, scientists can observe samples with a resolution of billionths of metres.