Scanning Electron Microscope - Gallery of SEM Images

Gallery of SEM Images

The following are examples of images taken using a scanning electron microscope.

• Coloured SEM image of soybean cyst nematode and egg. The artificial colouring makes the image easier for non-specialists to view and understand the structures and surfaces revealed in micrographs.

• SEM image of a house fly compound eye surface at 450× magnification.

• Compound eye of Antarctic krill Euphausia superba. Arthropod eyes are a common subject in SEM micrographs due to the depth of focus that an SEM image can capture. Colored picture.

• Ommatidia of Antarctic krill eye, a higher magnification of the krill's eye. SEMs cover a range from light microscopy up to the magnifications available with a TEM. Colored picture.

• SEM image of normal circulating human blood. This is an older and noisy micrograph of a common subject for SEM micrographs: red blood cells.

• SEM image of a hederelloid from the Devonian of Michigan (largest tube diameter is 0.75 mm). The SEM is used extensively for capturing detailed images of micro and macro fossils.

• Backscattered Electron (BSE) image of an Antimony rich region in a fragment of ancient glass. Museums use SEMs for studying valuable artifacts in a nondestructive manner.

• SEM image of the corrosion layer on the surface of an ancient glass fragment; note the laminar structure of the corrosion layer.

• SEM image of a photoresist layer used in semiconductor manufacturing taken on a field emission SEM. These SEMs are important in the semiconductor industry for their high-resolution capabilities.

• SEM image of the surface of a kidney stone showing tetragonal crystals of Weddellite (calcium oxalate dihydrate) emerging from the amorphous central part of the stone. Horizontal length of the picture represents 0.5 mm of the figured original.