Transmission Electron Microscopy

TEM imaging and analysis for a wide range of industries and disciplines

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a high-resolution imaging technique in which a beam of electrons passes through a thin sample to produce an image. The electron beam is impacted by the sample’s thickness/density, composition, and, in some cases, crystallinity. The electrons that are transmitted through the specimen subsequently provide contrast in the resulting image, revealing high-resolution compositional information.

TEM is capable of obtaining data at virtually unparalleled resolution due to the small wavelength of the transmitted electrons. Unlike scanning electron microscopy (SEM), which gathers the net intensity of secondary electrons in each point of the scan, TEM resolution is only limited by the wavelength of the individual electron and the quality of the electron optics. This means that transmission electron microscopes can routinely collect sub-nanometer-resolution (or even atomic-resolution) images.