One-Angstrom Microscope Achieves Unprecedented Resolution

BERKELEY, Calif., June 11 -- Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have made unprecedented images of columns of carbon atoms in a diamond lattice, only 0.89 angstrom apart, using the One-Ångstrom Microscope (OÅM) at the National Center for Electron Microscopy (NCEM). Scientists also report the first successful use of an electron microscope to resolve nitrogen atoms in the presence of more massive gallium atoms in gallium nitride, in columns spaced only 1.13 angstroms apart.
The ability to make images of light elements such as carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen in solids at atomic resolution is a very big step forward - and it was achieved by a technique that can be a routine tool in the future. Therefore, it is of great interest to science and industry, says Christian Kisielowski, who recently announced the landmark result in conjunction with Michael O'Keefe and fellow researchers Christian Nelson, Chengyu Song and Roar Kilaas of Berkeley Lab's Materials Sciences Division.