A unit of matter as small as the atom also has a shadow, and for the first time a group of scientists has managed to photograph it using a high-resolution microscope. The finding is published in the journal Nature Communications and will have important implications in atomic physics, quantum computing and biomicroscopy.
“You can’t see anything smaller than an atom using visible light,” explained Dave Kielpinski, one of the authors, from Griffith University (Australia). In order to photograph its shadow, the researchers isolated ytterbium atoms in a chamber free from electrical forces that were exposed to specific frequencies of light. The shadow of the atom was sent to a detector and the image was captured thanks to a digital camera coupled to a super-high-resolution microscope. The precision of this process is almost unimaginable. “If we change the frequency of the light that shines on the atom by just one part per million, the image can no longer be seen,” Kielpinski said.
Beyond the anecdote, the finding will have applications in numerous scientific fields. “These experiments will help us to confirm many theories of atomic physics and will also be useful in quantum computing,” said Erik Streed, another of the authors. Biology will also benefit, since very fragile samples such as DNA, sensitive to infrared and ultraviolet radiation, can be measured. “We will be able to predict the amount of light necessary to observe processes in cells without destroying them”, explained the researcher.
