Highest Ever Resolution Pic Of Atoms Captured
العلماء يلتقطون الصورة الأعلى دقة على الإطلاق للذرات
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Researchers at Cornell University have broken their own record for capturing the highest resolution image of an individual atom ever captured, creating an image that’s actually zoomed in 100 million times.
The photograph is an electron ptychographic reconstruction of a praseodymium orthoscandate crystal which has been zoomed in 100 million times.
The method that the team used to capture this imagery is called ptychography in which a beam (in this instance, made of electrons) is repeatedly fired through an object of interest, from different positions and angles each time.
By comparing the different patterns formed by the scattered beam, an algorithm reconstructs the target object with immense precision.
This breakthrough in the imagery breaks their own record which was set in 2018 where they used a new detector to triple the resolution of an electron microscope. However, the previous iteration was limited to image only ultrathin samples that were only a few atoms thick.
The new pixel array detector, loaded with more advanced 3D construction algorithms boosted the improvement by a factor of two. This resulted in an image with precision at the level of one picometre — one trillionth of a metre.
David Muller of New York’s Cornell University explains, “By seeing how the pattern changes, we are able to compute the shape of the object that caused the pattern. With these new algorithms, we’re now able to correct for all the blurring of our microscope to the point that the largest blurring factor we have left is the fact that the atoms themselves are wobbling.”
He further added, “We want to apply this to everything we do. Until now, we’ve all been wearing really bad glasses. And now we actually have a really good pair. Why wouldn’t you want to take off the old glasses, put on the new ones, and use them all the time?”
Researchers conclude that as of now even though the process is revolutionary, it’s quite time-consuming and computationally demanding. However, Mueller hopes that with advancements in computer and detector technology we could implement this more often in the future.
وكالات
لندن: حطّم الباحثون الرقم القياسي لأعلى دقة صورة تم التقاطها على الإطلاق للذرات الفردية، ما أدى إلى إنشاء لقطة يمكن «تكبيرها» نحو 100 مليون مرة. ووقع ضبط هذه الصور بدقة، في الواقع، حيث إن التشويش المتبقي في اللقطة هو فقط نتاج الاهتزاز الحراري للذرات نفسها. وهذا الإنجاز الذي حقّقه فريق جامعة كورنيل مبنيّ على سجلهم السابق، الذي تم تسجيله عام 2018، حيث استخدم الفريق كاشفًا جديدًا لمضاعفة دقة المجهر الإلكتروني ثلاث مرّات. ومع ذلك، كان هذا الإعداد السابق محدودًا، لأنه كان بإمكانه فقط تصوير عينات بالغة الرقة، عينات قليلة السُمك فقط من الذرات. لكن إدخال كاشف مصفوفة بكسل بالمجهر الإلكتروني (EMPAD) الجديد، الذي يتضمن خوارزميات إعادة بناء ثلاثية الأبعاد أكثر تقدمًا، مكّن من تحسين العملية.
