Electron Microscope

Electron Microscopes use a beam of electrons instead of light to magnify up to 5 million times. It can provide higher resolving power, but since electrons have shorter wavelengths than light, most living cells cannot be viewed with an electron microscope. 

In a scanning electron microscope, a beam of electrons moves back and forth across a cell’s surface, creating details of cell surface characteristics.  

 In a transmission electron microscope, the electron beam penetrates the cell and provides details of a cell’s internal structures. As you might imagine, electron microscopes are significantly more bulky and expensive than light microscopes.