Scientists have created the world’s fastest microscope, capable of capturing images of electrons in flight by hitting them with one- quintillionth-of-a-second electron pulses. This feat is remarkable, as electrons travel at roughly 1367 miles per second (2,200 kilometers per second), making them capable of circumnavigating the Earth in only 18.4 seconds.
The new device, a transmission electron microscope, was used to study the tiny particles’ behavior and movement. By decreasing the exposure time of microscopes to the scale of a few attoseconds (an attosecond being to a second what a second is to the age of the universe), physicists have untangled how electrons carry charge, how they behave inside semiconductors and liquid water, and how chemical bonds between atoms rip apart.
The microscope’s unique ability allows researchers to make new discoveries on how electrons take flight. The findings were published in the journal Science Advances on August 21.
Lead-author Mohammed Hassan, an associate professor of physics and optical sciences at the University of Arizona, explained that 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. With this microscope, the scientific community can understand the quantum physics behind how an electron behaves and how an electron moves.
The study’s findings aim to shed light on fundamental questions about how electrons arrange and rearrange themselves inside atoms and molecules, which is essential in both physics and chemistry.
Source: https://www.livescience.com/physics-mathematics/researchers-develop-worlds-fastest-microscope-that-can-see-electrons-in-motion