ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the basic ideas involved in electron microscopy analysis of asbestos. The need to use electron microscopy to obtain the detail required in asbestos analysis was recognized early in the 1970s. Once the ability to form and control the properties of lenses is recognized, it is easy to understand how groups of optical elements can be combined to construct a microscope. The analogy between the light microscope and the electron microscope is complete; each requires the same complement of lenses, performing completely similar functions, to form and display an enlarged image of an object. The transmission electron microscope is so named because the electron beam passes through the specimen. In the scanning electron microscope, the electron beam irradiates only one small region of the specimen at a time. Advances in instrument development have produced a new generation of transmission electron microscope instruments which incorporate scanning features.
