The type of microscopy with the highest resolution is electron ptychography, a form of electron microscopy. It can achieve a resolution as fine as 0.02 nanometers (20 picometers), capable of imaging individual atoms, which is about a fifth of the width of a hydrogen atom. This technique was developed by researchers at Cornell University and involves firing billions of electrons per second at a sample from multiple angles and using computer algorithms to analyze the electron patterns to produce extremely high-resolution images.
Other high-resolution microscopy techniques include high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), which achieves resolutions around 0.05 nanometers (0.5 ångströms), and super-resolution optical microscopy methods, which surpass the diffraction limit of light microscopy but do not reach the atomic-scale resolution of electron ptychography.
In summary, electron ptychography currently holds the record for the highest resolution in microscopy.
