acoustic microscope

(optics) An instrument which employs acoustic radiation at microwave frequencies to allow visualization of the microscopic detail exhibited in elastic properties of an object.

An instrument that utilizes focused acoustic waves to produce images of surface and subsurface features in materials, and to measure elastic properties on a capable of imaging elastic properties at nanometer materials, and biological materials including individual cells. The development microscopic scale. It has been used to image and measure local elastic of scanning probe microscopy has led to a new type of acoustic microscope properties in metals, ceramics, semiconductor integrated circuits, polymeric resolution.