Can we see an atom and an electron in a microscope?

​As our devices get ever smaller, so do the materials we use to make them. And that means you have to get really close to see them. Really close. read more

So with our naked eyes we cannot see atoms, and looking through any light microscope we also cannot, because even the best lenses and mirrors cannot beat the diffraction limit, which is roughly half a wavelength, about 200 nanometers, or 1000-2000 atoms. read more

"So we can regularly see single atoms and atomic columns." That's because electron microscopes use a beam of electrons rather than photons, as you'd find in a regular light microscope. As electrons have a much shorter wavelength than photons, you can get much greater magnification and better resolution. read more

Some of the cutting edge electron microscopes can resolve features as small as 1 angstrom. So it is possible to see atoms under an electron microscope. For example, the below image [1] shows a gold nanoparticle. Each of those little bumps is an atom with radius about 1.6 angstrom. read more