Image of quantum dots in a semiconductor: whereas the image taken with a normal microscope is blurry (left), the new method (right) clearly shows four quantum dots (bright yellow spots). (Image: University of Basel, Department of Physics)
Physicists have developed a technique based on optical microscopy that can be used to create images of atoms on the nanoscale. In particular, the new method allows the imaging of quantum dots in a semiconductor chip. Together with colleagues from the University of Bochum, scientists from the University of Basel's Department of Physics and the Swiss Nanoscience Institute reported the findings Photonics. Microscopes allow us to see structures that are otherwise invisible to the human eye. However, conventional optical microscopes cannot be used to image individual molecules and atoms, which measure just fractions of a nanometer across. This has to do with the wave nature of light and the associated laws of physics, which were formulated by the German physicist Ernst Abbe back in 1873. According to these laws, a microscope's maximum resolution is equal to half the wavelength of the light used.
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