Why is Conventional Optical Microscopy Limited in Nanotechnology?
The primary limitation of conventional optical microscopy in nanotechnology is its spatial resolution. According to the diffraction limit defined by Ernst Abbe, the resolution is constrained to approximately half the wavelength of the light used. For visible light, this translates to a resolution limit of about 200 nanometers. Since nanotechnology deals with structures at the nanoscale (1-100 nanometers), conventional optical microscopy cannot resolve most nanostructures.
