If you keep zooming in on something with an electron microscope, individual atoms eventually come into view, and Derek Miller of Veritasium shows us just that in his latest adventure. These individual atoms within the sample basically appear as small dots or points of light.
In this case, a Transmission Electron Microscopes (TEM) is best suited for achieving atomic resolution, but doing so requires the sample must be prepared very carefully to be thin enough for electrons to pass through. The tiny piece of metal used in this experiment measures just 3 mm across and is much smaller than the fingernail on your pinky (8-10 mm).
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Although what we see in the STEM images are atomic columns and not single atoms (as in the case of Crewe). Sometimes also phase contrast is shown in the video, where the shown bright/dark spots is a mere interference pattern of the atomic lattice and thus cannot be easily interpreted. Now a video about focused ion beam (FIB) instrument – the amazing tool that produced this TEM sample – would be a nice!,” said one commenter.
