Stay updated with breaking news from Tilman Pfau. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
A super-sized atom plus a cold ion have been combined to make a completely new molecule that is 4 micrometres across and makes extremely long molecular bonds
Ion Microscopy Goes Quantum February 22, 2021• Figure 1: Researchers demonstrate an ion-optics-based microscope that can resolve individual charged atoms. The atoms are confined in a one-dimensional optical lattice (bottom of image) and then illuminated with a light pulse, which ionizes the atoms (green balls). After a short delay, the ionized atoms are transferred into the ion-optic system, where they are manipulated with electrostatic lenses (red rectangles) and imaged with an ion detector (top of image). The arrow indicates the direction of travel of the ions through the microscop...