First Detailed "Photos" of Atoms

[MattusMaximus]

Well, not actual photos in the optical sense (hence the quotes)... but now technology has advanced to the point where the electronic structure of atoms can now be resolved using a technique called Field Emission Electron Microscopy (FEEM).

http://insidescience.org/research/first_detailed_photos_of_atoms

For the first time, physicists have photographed the structure of an atom down to its electrons.

The pictures, soon to be published in the journal Physical Review B, show the detailed images of a single carbon atom's electron cloud, taken by Ukrainian researchers at the Kharkov Institute for Physics and Technology in Kharkov, Ukraine.

Quantum mechanics wins!

 

[nathan]

I guess these are electros, not photos then Very cool.

ah, field emission microscopy, memories of when I were a wee whipper snapper of a post grad. One of our pranks (the microscopy group) was to take a regular crystallography diffraction pattern showing hexagonal symmetry, snip out 60 degrees, bend the remainder into a cone, and then photograph the result from above. This shows a diffraction pattern with what looks like a pentagonal symmetry. Then take that photo and photocopy it onto some random Russian paper and leave it lying around for a random member of staff to discover. he. he.

 

[TobiasTheViking]

Hm, it is really annoying me that there isn't really more of a description of the image..

also, seen cooler, in my opinion this still beats it.

*

With that said.. still cool

*http://www.atto.fysik.lth.se/

 

[CardZeus]

I guess these are electros, not photos then Very cool.

ah, field emission microscopy, memories of when I were a wee whipper snapper of a post grad. One of our pranks (the microscopy group) was to take a regular crystallography diffraction pattern showing hexagonal symmetry, snip out 60 degrees, bend the remainder into a cone, and then photograph the result from above. This shows a diffraction pattern with what looks like a pentagonal symmetry. Then take that photo and photocopy it onto some random Russian paper and leave it lying around for a random member of staff to discover. he. he.

And that would be funny why??? Are you implying that pentagonal symmetry is not possible?
My PhD was spent studying a new class of materials known as quasicrystals which regularly exhibit 5-fold and ten-fold symmetry. Of course they have no unit cell, but they do show extrmely sharp diffraction patterns (with pentagonal symmetry) and the definition of a crystal has been changed since their discovery by Schectman in the 1980's. A crystal is now defined as any solid having a discrete diffraction pattern.

 

[CardZeus]

... and nothing new here - from the article "While tools like the scanning tunneling microscope already map the structure of electrons in a sample of many atoms..."

 

[Tsukasa Buddha]

My old textbook had pictures (via scanning tunneling microscope, IIRC) of atoms arranged to form kanji .

 

[nathan]

And that would be funny why??? Are you implying that pentagonal symmetry is not possible?
My PhD was spent studying a new class of materials known as quasicrystals which regularly exhibit 5-fold and ten-fold symmetry. Of course they have no unit cell, but they do show extrmely sharp diffraction patterns (with pentagonal symmetry) and the definition of a crystal has been changed since their discovery by Schectman in the 1980's. A crystal is now defined as any solid having a discrete diffraction pattern.

It was funny because it was at the time when 5-fold quasi crystals were the hot new thing.

 

[technoextreme]

Well, not actual photos in the optical sense (hence the quotes)... but now technology has advanced to the point where the electronic structure of atoms can now be resolved using a technique called Field Emission Electron Microscopy (FEEM).

http://insidescience.org/research/first_detailed_photos_of_atoms


Quantum mechanics wins!

No. That isn't a photo of an atom. That is a photo of the p and s orbitals.

Hm, it is really annoying me that there isn't really more of a description of the image..

http://winter.group.shef.ac.uk/orbitron/