High-speed ‘electron camera’ films atomic nuclei in vibrating molecules

An ultrafast “electron camera” at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has made the first direct snapshots of atomic nuclei in molecules that are vibrating within millionths of a billionth of a second after being hit by a laser pulse. The method, called ultrafast electron diffraction (UED), could help scientists better understand the role of nuclear motions in light-driven processes that naturally occur on extremely fast timescales.

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“We’ve pushed the speed limit of the technique so that we can now see nuclear motions in gases in real time,” … “UED uses a beam of very energetic electrons that interacts with both electrons and atomic nuclei in molecules. Therefore, it can directly probe the nuclear geometry with high resolution.” … ultrafast electron diffraction. How the heck do the get electron pulses only femtoseconds long?

The video answers this question and is well worth viewing.

Practical application is in building better magnetic data storage devices.

Better microscope is an electron microscope seeing processes as fast as ten billionths of a second or faster.