A team of scientists managed to achieve the world’s first X-ray of a single atom in nature. The experiment involved an iron and terbium atom, with both inserted in their respective molecular hosts. Detecting the X-ray signal of a single atom required conventional detectors in X-rays to be supplemented with a specialized detector made of a sharp metal tip positioned at extreme proximity to the sample to collect X-ray excited electrons.
This technique is also known as synchrotron X-ray scanning tunneling microscopy (SX-STM) and enables the team to see the elements within a material and determine its chemical makeup. X-ray spectroscopy in SX-STM is triggered by photoabsorption of core level electrons, combining conventional synchotron radiation with quantum tunneling, which constitutes elemental fingerprints.
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Atoms can be routinely imaged with scanning probe microscopes, but without X-rays one cannot tell what they are made of. We can now detect exactly the type of a particular atom, one atom-at-a-time, and can simultaneously measure its chemical state. Once we are able to do that, we can trace the materials down to ultimate limit of just one atom. This will have a great impact on environmental and medical sciences and maybe even find a cure that can have a huge impact for humankind. This discovery will transform the world,” said Wai Hla, Director of the Nanoscale and Quantum Phenomena Institute at Ohio University.
