Powerful tools used for high-resolution images are being opened up by quantum weirdness.
The microscopes are being refined by the lab of Ben McMorran. The principle of quantum mechanics allows an electron to behave like a wave and a particle. It is one of many examples of weird, quantum-level quirks in which subatomic particles often behave in ways that seem to violate the laws of classical physics.
One of the studies found a way to study an object under the microscope without damaging fragile samples. A way to make two measurements on a sample at the same time is created by the second.
McMorran and his colleagues have published their findings in two papers.
It is difficult to observe something without influencing it, especially when you are looking at details.
New kinds of materials can be seen with electron microscopes, which are used to get close-up views of cells. electron microscopes focus a beam of electrons at a sample instead of using light. The beam interacts with the sample. The changes to the beam are measured by a detector and translated into a high-resolution image.
Damage to fragile structures can be caused by the powerful electron beam. It can degrade the details that scientists are trying to study.
A thought experiment published in the early 1990s proposed a way to detect a sensitive bomb without touching it and setting it off.
The trick relies on a tool called a diffraction grating, which is a thin layer of a slit. The electron beam splits in two when it hits the grating.
Amy Turner, a graduate student in McMorran, said that the electron comes in and gets split into two paths, but then recombines so that it only goes to one of the two possible outputs.
The electrons don't hit the sample like they do in traditional electron microscopy The way the electron beam recombines reveals information about the specimen under the scope.
McMorran's team used a similar setup to measure a sample in two places at the same time. They split an electron beam so that it passed on either side of a small gold particle, measuring the tiny bits of energy that electrons transferred to the particle on each side.
Understanding how particles are interacting in a sample could be revealed by that approach.
The special thing about this is that you can combine the parts of it that are different and see if they are related or not.
While the two studies are making different kinds of measurements, they are using the same basic setup. Members of McMorran's team think their tool could be useful for a variety of different kinds of experiments.
Turner said that this is the first electron interferometer of its kind.
McMorran said that the setup could be added to many existing electron microscopes. His team has received interest from other labs who want to use the interferometer in their own microscopes.
An electron microscope lets us look at stuff on the atomic scale, but a lot of things are hard to see, like biological materials which are both fairly invisible to electrons and easily damaged.
More information: Amy E. Turner et al, Interaction-Free Measurement with Electrons, Physical Review Letters (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.127.110401Inelastic Mach-Zehnder Interferometry with Free Electrons is a paper by Johnson. There is a book titled "PhysRevLett.128.147401."
Journal information: Physical Review Letters Citation: How quantum weirdness is improving electron microscopes (2022, April 28) retrieved 28 April 2022 from https://phys.org/news/2022-04-quantum-weirdness-electron-microscopes.html This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.
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