World’s Fastest Microscope Captures 1 Quintillionth of a Second

The subatomic world is challenging to visualize not only because of its minute scale but also due to its incredibly rapid dynamics. Physicists at the University of Arizona have now developed the world’s fastest electron microscope, capable of capturing events that last just one quintillionth of a second.

The Challenge of Capturing Attosecond Events

While a high-speed camera with millisecond shutter speeds can capture a person running, the fastest electron microscopes can record events on the attosecond scale, which is one quintillionth of a second—making milliseconds seem like an eternity in comparison.

To put it in perspective, one second contains as many attoseconds as there are seconds in 31.7 billion years, a timespan vastly exceeding the age of the universe.

Breaking Records with Attosecond Precision

Previous attempts reached down to 43 attoseconds, termed by researchers as “the shortest controlled event ever created by humankind.” The University of Arizona team has now achieved even greater precision, freezing time at just one attosecond.

This advancement builds on earlier research by Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz, and Anne L’Huilliere, who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2023 for creating the first measurable attosecond light pulses.

The new study introduces an “attomicroscope,” which uses a pulse of ultraviolet light to release ultra-fast electrons into the microscope.

These electrons are then exposed to a polarized laser pulse, split into two beams and arriving at slightly different times. This process generates a “gated” electron pulse capable of imaging samples, such as graphene, at attosecond resolution.

This breakthrough enables the observation of ultrafast electron movements that were previously invisible. The researchers suggest this advance could significantly impact quantum physics, chemistry, and biology.

A Milestone in Temporal Resolution

Mohammed Hassan, a study author, highlighted the long-standing goal of enhancing temporal resolution in electron microscopy. These movements occur in attoseconds, and for the first time, we are able to achieve attosecond temporal resolution with our electron transmission microscope, which we term ‘attomicroscopy.’ This allows us to visualize electron motion in unprecedented detail.

Read the original article on: New Atlas

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