Diffraction · Imaging · Spectroscopy
Electron probes: reading the evidence
From crystal diffraction to electron imaging and chemical shifts: follow the apparatus, retained records and limits of inference.
The same electron can help test a wavelength, form an image or reveal an energy difference. Each instrument retains a different record. Read the three articles in order, or start from the signal you want to understand.
Electron diffraction: two experiments, one wavelength test
How did angular currents and photographic rings turn a matter-wave proposal into a quantitative test?
Ruska: making an electron image was only the beginning
What separated a magnified grid from a microscope capable of revealing finer structure?
Kai Siegbahn: when electron energies began to reveal chemistry
What turns a resolved photoelectron peak into evidence about bonding near a surface?
Three records, three questions
1927 diffraction: do directions and voltage agree with a momentum-dependent wavelength? 1931–1933 imaging: can successive magnetic lenses retain finer specimen detail? 1950s–1960s spectroscopy: can resolved electron energies distinguish local environments? The associated prize years—1937, 1986 and 1981—are separate from those experimental dates.