Pardon me while I go chemistry geek. It has recently come to my attention that Leo Gross and co-workers at IBM Research in Switzerland have developed a special atomic-force microscopy technique that can image actual molecules with enough resolution to “see” individual bonds and hydrogen atoms. Shown uppermost is a computer-generated model of the pentacene molecule, and below it, an actual image from the microscope. The microscope’s probe is tipped with a single molecule of carbon monoxide. Unbelievable.
6 thoughts on “Atomic-bond resolution microscopy”
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That’s dripping with five kinds of awesome!
*ONLY* five??
There’s eight in there, at the least!
The first time with an AFM, which is very cool. TEM and STM have been doing atomic scale imaging since the 60s and 80s respectively. Look up the work of Don Eigler if you want really beautiful images of atomic corrals made by moving the atoms about with an STM tip.