Clocking the Movements of Atoms

Roland Piquepaille writes "With special microscopes, scientists and engineers involved in nanotechnologies have been able to 'see' atoms for a while. But they couldn't clock the atomic response to events which typically occur in nanoseconds. Now, U.S. physicists have found a way to clock the movements of atoms at the nanometer scale. In their experiments, they were able to literally watch atoms switching positions in ferroelectric materials. Adding the dimension of time to the observation of the nanoworld could lead to easier developments of 'materials for improved memory applications in microelectronics.'"

Comments

I figured it out faster

[From A Far Away Land]

"In their experiments, they were able to literally watch atoms switching positions in ferroelectric materials."

I'd have just unplugged all the atoms, and when plugged in again, they'd all start counting from 12:00

At long last...

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess they'll finally be able to see the microscopic chance of the average Slashdot reader getting laid.

Re:At long last...

[Holi]

sweet, another way that I'm not the average slashdotter.

Basic stages

[i_should_be_working]

Now, I'm never one to complain about the decisions of /. editors (and I'm not here either), but it's pretty funny seeing this in the hardware sections.

Maybe Ars Technica will have a review later...

TFA? Yeah, it's worth reading. It's pretty cool the toys these guys (physicists in general) get to play with.

BS

[Mr. Underbridge]

With special microscopes, scientists and engineers involved in nanotechnologies have been able to 'see' atoms for a while. But they couldn't clock the atomic response to events which typically occur in nanoseconds.

*Femto*second laser spectroscopy has been available for some time now to investigate chemical reactions that happen much faster than nanoseconds. Got the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1999 for Zewail.

Re:BS

[kebes]

You're quite right. Femtosecond laser spectroscopy has already pushed the time resolution way beyond what this new report is claiming. In fact attosecond pulses have even been generated, making it possible not only to measure motion of atoms, but motion of electrons within atoms during a chemical reaction.

However, it should be noted that this new report uses X-ray microdiffraction. They obtain picosecond time resolution, simultaneous with structural information. The article summary is not especially exact, but the structural information (positions of atoms) of this technique is indeed unique. Femtosecond laser spectrscopy will return quite a bit of information, but it doesn't really tell you the movement of the atoms in a bulk sample (only movement of atoms in relation to each other, during the chemical reaction). This new technique appears to be applicable to simultaneously deducing the locations and motions of atoms in solids (as opposed to gases/plasmas).

The time resolution is nothing amazing, but it is nevertheless quite impressive that they can deduce the motion of a domain wall in a solid with picosecond time resolution.

For anyone interested, the actually paper in question is:
Grigoriev et al. Physical Review Letters (12 May 2006), 187601. DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.187601

Re:BS

[waxigloo]

There is a difference between seeing individual atoms move in ferroelectric domain inversion and 'investigating chemical reactions'. Femtosecond laser spectroscopy can really only tell you something about the atomic makeup of a sample and how it changes on a femtosecond timescale...not so much seeing atoms of the sample moving around. So, this is an important step and not so much 'BS' as you put it.

Re:BS

[XchristX]

The article can be obtained from Grigoriev's webpage itself:

PDF WARNING!!!

http://homepages.cae.wisc.edu/~alexey/PRL06_grigor iev.pdf

How fast are these things moving, really?

[Anonymous Coward]

How fast is one nanometer per nanosecond, in meters per second? I don't have my calculator with me.

Re:He fooled you! - sorta

[From A Far Away Land]

You're right, he fooled me, I didn't see he was joking. I just assumed he was American, or worked at NASA so he didn't know metric.

1,000,000,000/1,000,000,000 of course = 1/1 but not everyknow would know that a nanosecond is a billionth of a second.

thanks, that's helpful

[Goldsmith]

There are already plenty of ways to "see" the motions of atoms which do not require a very expensive national X-ray source. This technique is not comparable to AFM and STM, which are now cheap enough to use in teaching labs.

What about simulations?

[brian0918]

Maybe we couldn't physically see how atoms are moving over short time intervals, but we've been able to simulate it for quite a while. I used to run simulations at Sandia National Labs in New Mexico that looked at the interactions of a couple dozen atoms on a femtosecond scale.

Clocking is good, but

[presidentbeef]

What about overclocking those babies?! Whooo!

No longer will atoms be bogged down at the n00b 'factory-spec' speed of light.

Now to find the multiplier...

Finally, some much-needed police funding

[noidentity]

This opens a new source of funding from speeding atoms:

COPper atom: Do you know how fast you were going?
Helium atom (in a high voice): Not at all, officer!

Re:Finally, some much-needed police funding

[AoT]

Helium atom: But I know where I am!

Re:Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle

[shadwstalkr]

Maybe.

Re:Snore...

[grammar fascist]

Wake me up when we're OVERclocking atoms.

I boiled some water yesterday.