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The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in their present compound form in the 17th century.
Optical magnification is the ratio between the apparent size of an object (or its size in an image) and its true size, and thus it is a dimensionless number. Optical magnification is sometimes referred to as "power" (for example "10× power"), although this can lead to confusion with optical power .
One of the most important properties of microscope objectives is their magnification. The magnification typically ranges from 4× to 100×. It is combined with the magnification of the eyepiece to determine the overall magnification of the microscope; a 4× objective with a 10× eyepiece produces an image that is 40 times the size of the object.
Memorial in Jena, Germany to Ernst Karl Abbe, who approximated the diffraction limit of a microscope as = , where d is the resolvable feature size, λ is the wavelength of light, n is the index of refraction of the medium being imaged in, and θ (depicted as α in the inscription) is the half-angle subtended by the optical objective lens (representing the numerical aperture).
The practical limit to magnification with a light microscope is around 1300×. Higher magnifications are possible, but it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain image clarity as the magnification increases. [17] Bright-field microscopes have low apparent optical resolution due to the blur of out-of-focus material;
In light microscopy, oil immersion is a technique used to increase the resolving power of a microscope. This is achieved by immersing both the objective lens and the specimen in a transparent oil of high refractive index, thereby increasing the numerical aperture of the objective lens.
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