Recent Developments in the Electron Microscope

A description is given of the limitations in resolving power of microscopes indicating the reason for the 50- to 100-times greater resolving power of the electron microscope over the optical instrument. This is followed by a treatment of the basic principles involved in the electron microscope. A detailed description is given of the newly developed RCA electron microscope which, although equal or superior in performance to any previous microscope, occupies a much smaller space, is completely self-contained, and can be readily handled by an inexperienced operator. Examples of the work done by this new instrument are shown. The extremely compact power-supply system for the microscope is described. The reduction in size is obtained chiefly by the use of a radio-frequency-actuated rectifier system. By the use of radio frequency and an especially designed voltage divider, excellent stability of the order of 0.004 per cent of 60 kilovolts output at 0.5 milliampere drain is obtained.