Oak Ridge National Laboratory researchers are peering into the atomic world with record clarity, developing an electron microscope image that can distinguish the individual, dumbbell-shaped atoms of silicon in a crystal.
"Every time you see something more clearly you learn some secrets," said Stephen Pennycook, who heads the lab's electron microscopy group.
Pennycook and colleagues write in a Sept. 17 article in the journal Science that they have achieved an image resolution at 0.6 angstrom, breaking the previous record of 0.7 angstrom that the lab set earlier this year.
An angstrom is the smallest wavelength of light. One angstrom is about 500,000 times smaller than the thickness of a human hair. Most atoms are about 1 angstrom in diameter.
A microscope that can see atoms - Technology & science - Science - msnbc.com
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