How well can we 'see' at different wavelengths?

[physea]

Hello! There are various methods to 'see' things. Light, infrared, laser, ultrasound, magnetic field, etc.
Is there a comprehensive table that will list the pros and cons, limitations and advantages, how distinctive each method can be (ie can distinguish 1mm or 1nm?), what materials they can see etc?
Thanks!

 

[CWatters]

Look up the relationship between the wavelength of the "light" and the size of the object that can be resolved by that light.

 

[physea]

Regarding the title change, I am not sure if wavelengths are always involved, eg in magnetic field?

 

[f95toli]

Look up the relationship between the wavelength of the "light" and the size of the object that can be resolved by that light.

This does not work if you include modern scanning probe methods in microscopy; specifically near-field microscopy which makes it possible to even use microwaves to study surfaces with nm resolution. The spatial resolution is (mainly) only limited by the size of the tip used to scatter the light.
Near-field methods like SNOM, NSMM etc are quite widely used these days .

Note also that these methods are really optical; your signal is really the collected light; meaning they are distinct from say atomic force microscopy(AFM) or scanning tunneling microscopy (STM)

 

[f95toli]

Regarding the title change, I am not sure if wavelengths are always involved, eg in magnetic field?

Magnetic force microscopy (MFM) which is essentially one (of many) version of atomic force microscopy senses the force from the magnetic interaction between sample and tip directly. Hence, there is no wavelength involved.