X-Rays Reveal Secrets of a Single Atom

X-Rays Reveal Secrets of a Single Atom

X-Rays , Reveal Secrets of a, Single Atom .

ScienceAlert reports that scientists have successfully used X-rays to characterize the properties of a single atom.

Here, we show that X-rays can be used to characterize the elemental and chemical state of just one atom, Tolulope Ajayi, physicist at Ohio University and Argonne National Laboratory, via ScienceAlert.

The team successfully combined synchrotron X-rays with a technique known as scanning tunneling microscopy.

The technique interacts with the electrons of test material in a process called "quantum tunneling.".

In 2022, the team published a paper on how the technique could be used to rotate a single molecule.

Now, the team has measured the properties of a single atom of iron.

Amplified X-rays excite the sample and then a detector is used to collect the resulting photoelectrons.

ScienceAlert reports that the technique offers some exciting possibilities.

The team's latest work was published in the journal 'Nature.'.

Our work, connects synchrotron X-rays with a quantum tunneling process and opens future X-rays experiments for simultaneous characterizations of elemental and chemical properties of materials at the ultimate single-atom limit, Study authors' statement, via ScienceAlert