Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research have designed a microscope capable of ultra-fast processes for quantum application. The camera enables the user to precisely track electron movements to the individual atom. This technology has widespread electrical applications as computers and smartphones components are becoming increasingly faster and smaller.
Analysis of transistors is just one application where a high-speed camera’s video could be extremely beneficial, as it is capable of exposing each frame for a few hundred attoseconds (or a billionth of a billionth of a second). The technology utilizes ultrashort laser pulses combined with a scanning tunneling microscope.
"By combining a scanning tunneling microscope with ultrafast pulses, it was easy to use the advantages of the two methods to compensate for their respective disadvantages," says Manish Garg, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Solid State Research.