Researchers at the University of Arizona have announced the development of the world’s fastest electron microscope, which can capture an interval of a single attosecond.
At one attosecond, electron motion can be captured in freeze frames as the speed of the beam matches that of the target electron.
“This transmission electron microscope is like a very powerful camera in the latest version of smartphones; it allows us to take pictures of things we were not able to see before – like electrons.
But the idea is we start to control [electrons].
We are able to measure the motion of electrons in matter.
Advertisement The new electron microscopy approach uses ultrashort light pulses, the basis of attosecond physics, together with an electron beam pulse.
But now, for the first time, we are able to attain attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope – and we coined it ‘attomicroscopy.’
For the first time, we can see pieces of the electron in motion.”
With technology, we are able to record shorter and shorter time intervals, which gives us new insights into physical phenomena. A single attosecond can be captured by the fastest electron microscope in the world, according to research from the University of Arizona.
An astoundingly small unit of time is an attosecond. It is comparable to one billionth of a billionth of a second. Comparatively speaking, the quantity of them in a second is comparable to the total number of seconds since the universe’s inception, which is 13.77 billion years ago.
Lasers are used in electron microscopes to produce a pulsed electron beam. The shorter the beams used to view the study subject, the faster and higher-quality the image. The beams were only a few attoseconds long before this apparatus, so part of the action would be missed if they were used to examine the motion of an individual electron. Freeze frames can record electron motion at a speed equal to the target electron’s attosecond.
Senior author Mohammed Hassan, an associate professor of physics and optical sciences, stated in a statement that “the newest smartphones come with better cameras.”. “This transmission electron microscope lets us take pictures of objects we couldn’t see before, like electrons. It’s similar to the highly potent camera in the most recent model of smartphones. We hope that this microscope will help the scientific community comprehend the principles of quantum physics that underlie the behavior and motion of an electron. ****.
This discovery expands upon decades of attosecond physics research, which was recognized last year with the Nobel Prize in Physics being awarded to three of its pioneers: Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huillier. Even after all these years of work, the field is still relatively new and has a lot of unrealized potential.
The research is still in its early stages and primarily fundamental in nature. However, the concept is that we begin to control [electrons]. The motion of electrons within matter can be measured. Perhaps we could also exert some minor control over this motion. Nobel Laureate Professor L’Huillier told IFLScience in an exclusive interview that “this could be important to possibly control some chemical process, possibly biological process later on.”.
The novel method of electron microscopy combines an electron beam pulse with ultrashort light pulses, which form the foundation of attosecond physics. The ability to view the ultrafast processes at the atomic level has been made possible by the precise synchronization of the pulses.
Since everyone wants to see electron motion, Hassan stated, “the improvement of the temporal resolution inside of electron microscopes has been long anticipated and the focus of many research groups.”. In attoseconds, these movements take place. Nevertheless, we have now achieved attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope for the first time, a technique we have named “attomicroscopy.”. We are able to witness electron fragments moving for the first time. “.
