Physicists have created the world’s fastest microscope, and it’s so quick that it can spot electrons in motion.
The new device, a newer version of a transmission electron microscope, captures images of electrons in flight by hitting them with one- quintillionth-of-a-second electron pulses.
By using the microscope on the tiny particles, the researchers hope to make some new discoveries on how they take flight.
“With this microscope, we hope the scientific community can understand the quantum physics behind how an electron behaves and how an electron moves.”
But even the few attosecond scale is too big to capture the individual motions of electrons.
These pulses hit the “sample” being studied, and as the electrons pass through it, they slow down and change the shape of the electron beam wavefront.
“We are able to attain attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope – and we coined it ‘attomicroscopy,'” Hassan said.
“For the first time, we can see pieces of the electron in motion.”
The fastest microscope in the world was made by physicists, and it can detect moving electrons.
Using electron pulses that last a quintillionth of a second, the new gadget—a more advanced transmission electron microscope—captures pictures of electrons in flight.
Electrons can travel around the Earth in only 18 point 4 seconds, which is quite an accomplishment, as they can cover 2,200 kilometers per second, or roughly 1367 miles per second.
By examining the tiny particles under the microscope, the researchers hope to learn more about how they take off. The researchers released their results on August. published on page 21 of Science Advances.
Lead author Mohammed Hassan, an associate professor of physics and optical sciences at the University of Arizona, said in a statement, “This transmission electron microscope is like a very powerful camera in the latest version of smart phones; it allows us to take pictures of things we were not able to see before – like electrons.”. With the help of this microscope, we hope to further understanding of the quantum physics underlying the behavior and motion of electrons in the scientific community. “. .
A fundamental question in physics and chemistry is how electrons organize and reorganize inside of atoms and molecules, but studying these minuscule particles is extremely challenging due to their whitish nature.
Related: Electrons in a ‘built atom-by-atom’ crystalline film accelerate electron mobility seven times faster than in semiconductors.
In the early 2000s, physicists developed techniques to generate tiny attosecond (or 1X10^-18 seconds) pulses in order to create an exposure time capable of capturing electron movements. The scientists who made this breakthrough were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physics.
Scientists have unraveled the mysteries surrounding electron charge, behavior in semiconductors and liquid water, and the breaking of chemical bonds between atoms by reducing the exposure time of microscopes to a few attoseconds (an attosecond is equivalent to a second in the age of the universe).
However, even attosecond scales are too large to capture individual electron motions. In order to achieve this, the researchers in the new study adjusted an electron cannon until it only produced a single attosecond pulse.
The electrons in the pulses slow down and alter the wavefront of the electron beam as they pass through the “sample” under investigation. A lens is used to magnify the slowed beam before it strikes a fluorescent material, which glows when the beam strikes it.
They were able to examine the incredibly fast motions of electrons inside atoms by combining the electron pulse with two precisely timed light pulses (to generate the electron pulse and excite electrons in the material into motion, respectively).
Hassan stated, “We named it ‘attomicroscopy,’ because we can achieve attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope.”. We are able to witness fragments of the electron moving for the first time. ****.
