Sheffield Scientists Have Revolutionized the Electron Microscope

An anonymous reader writes "For over 70 years, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which 'looks through' an object to see atomic features within it, has been constrained by the relatively poor lenses which are used to form the image. The new method, called electron ptychography, dispenses with the lens and instead forms the image by reconstructing the scattered electron-waves after they have passed through the sample using computers. Scientists involved in the scheme consider their findings to be a first step in a completely new epoch of electron imaging. The process has no fundamental experimental boundaries and it is thought it will transform sub-atomic scale transmission imaging."

Comments

Nice but not that nice

[kaspar_silas]

Basically what they have done is phase contrast transmission electron imaging. This is quite an achievement in itself and well done to them. However they most certainly did not invent this "technique" (and I doubt they actually claimed that). The method is well known from X-ray phase contrast imaging research.

They even wrote this: "The technique is applicable to microscopes using any type of wave and has other key advantages over conventional methods. For example, when used with visible light, the new technology forms a type of image that means scientists can see living cells very clearly without the need to stain them, a process which usually kills the cells."
Em, yes but optical phase-contrast is damn well established. O and Frits Zernike who got the Nobel prize for doing exactly this in 1953 might be pissed off.