2. What is microscope?
A microscope is an instrument used to see
objects that are too small for the naked eye.
3. Properties of a microscope
A good microscope should have at least
three properties:
• Good Resolution
• Good Contrast
• Good Magnification
4. Good Resolution :-
• Resolution power refers to the ability to produce
separate images of closely placed objects.
• So that they can be distinguished as two separate
entities.
The resolution power of-
• Unaided human eye is about 0.2mm (200 µm)
• Light microscope is about 0.2 µm.
• Electron microscope is about 0.5 nm.
Immersion Oil has a higher refractive index than
air, hence, use of oil enhances the resolution
power of a microscope.
5. Good Contrast:
• Contrast is improved by staining the
specimen.
• When the stain bind to the cells, the contrast
is increased.
6. Good Magnification:
• Ocular lens with a magnification power
of 10X.
• Objective lens-
• Scanning (4X)
• Low power (10X)
• High power (40X)
• Oil immersion (100X)
7. Total magnification of a field is the product of
the magnification of objective and ocular
lens:
• Scanning field (40X)
• Low power field (100X)
• High power field (400X)
• Oil immersion field (1000X)
8. TYPES OF MICROSCOPE
The following types of microscopes are in
use now-
• Bright field or light microscope
• Dark field microscope
• Phase contrast microscope
• Fluorescence microscope
• Electron microscope
9. Bright field or light microscope
• Light microscope forms a dark image against
a brighter background, hence the name bright
field.
Structure:
• The parts of light microscope is divided
into three groups-
• Mechanical part
• Magnifying part
• Illuminating part
10. Mechanical part:
• Base: It holds various part of microscope, such as
the light source, the fine and coarse adjustment
knobs.
• C- shaped arm: It hold the microscope, and it
connects the ocular lens to the objective
lens.
• Mechanical stage: The arm bears a stage with
stage clips to hold the slides and the stage control
knobs to move the slide during viewing.
• It has an aperture at the center that
permit light to reach the object from
the bottom.
11. Magnifying part:
• Ocular lens: The arm contains an eye piece that
bears an ocular lens of 10X magnification power.
• Microscope with two eye pieces are called
as binocular microscopes.
• Objective lens: The arm also contains a
revolving nose piece that bears three to five
objectives with lenses of differing magnifying
power (4X,10X,40X, and 100X).
12. Illuminating parts:
• Condenser: It is mounted beneath the
stage which focuses a cone of light on the
slide.
• Iris diaphragm: it control the light
pass through the condenser.
• Light source: it may be a mirror or an
electric bulb.
• Fine and coarse adjustment knob:
They sharpen the image.
14. Principle :
• The rays emitted from the light source
pass through the iris diaphragm and fall
on the specimen.
• The rays passing through the specimen is
gathered by the objective and a magnified
image is formed.
• This image is further magnified by the
ocular lens to produce the final magnified
virtual image.
16. Dark field microscope:
• In dark field microscope, the object appears
bright against a dark background.
• It is made possible by special dark field
condenser.
• Hence the name dark field microscope.
Principle:
• The dark field condenser has a central opaque
area that blocks light from entering the object
lens directly and has a peripheral annular hollow
area which allows the light to pass through and
focus on the specimen obliquely.
17. • Only the which is reflected by the specimen
enters the objective lens whereas the unreflected
light does not enter the objective.
• As a result, the specimen is brightly
illuminated; but the background appears dark.
Application:
• Dark field microscope is used to identify the
living, unstained cells and thin bacteria like
spirochetes which is can not visualised by light
microscope
18. Phase contrast microscope:
• As per name, in phase contrast microscope
the contrast is enhanced .
• This microscope visualizes the unstained
living cells by creating difference in contrast
between the cells and water.
• It converts slight differences in refractive index
and cell density into easily detectable
variations in light intensity.
• Contrast can be enhanced by staining of
the specimens, but as staining kills the
microbes, the properties of living
cells cannot be studied.
19. Principle:
• The condenser is similar to that of dark field
microscope, consist of an opaque central area
with a thin transparent ring, which produces a
hollow cone of light.
• As this cone of light passes through a cell, some
light rays are bent due to variations in density
and refractive index within the specimen and are
retarded by about one fourth of a wave length.
• The undeviated light rays strike a phase
plate,(a special disk located in the objective)
while the deviated rays miss the ring and pass
through the rest of the plate.
20. • The phase ring is constructed in such a way that
the undeviated light passing through it is
advanced by one-fourth of a wavelength out of
the phase and will be cancel each other when
they come together to form an image.
• The background, formed by undeviated
light ,is bright ,while the unstained object
appears dark and well defined.
Summary of application-
• The light rays go through condenser
specimen phase ring objective
lens ocular lens
22. Application:
• To study unstained living cells
• Detailed examination of internal structures
in living microorganisms.
• To study flagellar movements and motility of
bacteria and protozoans.
• To study intestinal and other live protozoa such
as amoebae and Trichomonas.
• To examine fungi grown in culture.
23. Fluorescence microscope:
Refers to any microscope that uses fluorescence property
to generate an image.
Principle:
• When fluorescent dyes are exposed to ultraviolet rays,
they become excited and are said to fluoresce, i.e. they
convert this invisible, short wavelength rays into light
of longer wavelengths (i.e. visible light).
25. • The source of light may be a mercury lamp
which emits rays that pass through an excitation
filter.
• The excitation filter is so designed that it
allows only short wavelength UV light (about
400nm, called as the exciting wavelength of
light) to pass through; blocking all other long
wavelength rays.
26. • The exciting rays then get reflected by a
dichromatic mirror in such a way that they fall
on the specimen which is priorly stained with
fluorescent dye.
• The fluorescent dye absorb the the exciting
rays of short wavelength, gets activated and
it turns emits fluorescent rays of higher
wavelength.
27. • The barrier filter positioned after the objective
lenses removes any remaining UV light, which
could damage the viewer eyes, or blue and
violet light, which would reduce the image
contrast.
Applications:
Epifluorescence microscope:
It is the simplest form of fluorescence
microscope, which has the following
applications.
• Auto fluorescence: Some microbes
directly fluoresce when placed under UV
28. Microbe coated with fluorescent dyes:
Certain microbes fluoresce when they are
stained with fluorochrome dyes. e.g.
• Acridine orange dye is used in QBC
examination for the detection of malarial
parasites.
• Auramine phenol is used for the detection
of tubercle bacilli.
Immunofluorescece:
• It uses florescent dye tagged
immunoglobulin to detect cell surface
antigen or antibodies bound to cell surface
29. Electron Microscopy :
• An Electron microscope uses
accelerated electrons as a source of
illumination.
• Because the wave length of electrons can be up
to 100,000 time shorter than that of visible
light photons.
• The electron microscope has a much
better resolving power than a light
microscope.
• Hence, it can reveal the details of flagella,
fimbriae and intracellular structures of a
30. • It was invented by German Physicist Ernst and
Ruska in 1931.
Difference between light microscope and electron microscope
31. Electron microscope are of two types:
• Transmission electron microscope
• Scanning electron microscope
Transmission electron microscope
• Electrons are generated by electron gun,
which travel in high speed.
• The medium of travel in EM should be a fully
vacuum path because in air path, electrons can
get deflected by collisions with air molecules.
32. Electron pathway:
• Electron pass through a magnetic condenser and then
bombardon thin sliced specimen mounted on the
copper slide.
• The specimen scatters electrons passing through it,
and then the electron beam is focused by
magnetic lenses to form an enlarged, visible
image of the specimen on a fluorescent screen.
Measures to increase contrast of EM –
Staining:
In electron microscope the stain is used are solution of
heavy metal salts like lead citrate and uranyl acetate.
33. Negative staining:
The specimen is spread out in a thin film with
heavy metals like phosphotungstic acid or
uranyl acetate.
Shadowing:
This technique is particularly useful in
studying virus morphology, bacterial flegella,
and plasmids.
34. Scanning electron microscope
• Scanning electron microscope has been used
to examine the surface of microorganisns in
great detail.
• It has a resolution of 7nm or less.
• The SEM differs from TEM, in producing an
image from electrons emitted by an object’s
surface rather than from transmitted
electrons
35. Rules of using a microscope
• Always carry with 2 hands
• Only use lens paper for cleaning
• Do not force knobs
• Always store covered
• Be careful of the cords