Electron filmed for the first time [View All]

[Echotrail]

Until now it has been impossible to photograph electrons, given their velocity of movement.

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Using a stroboscope and laser, a team led by Swedish researcher Johan Mauritsson, assistant professor in atomic physics at Lund University, went beyond measuring the end result of an electron's interaction, they tracked and filmed its process.

The movie of electron motion was created by a collaboration of scientists at Lund, Louisiana State University, and the Institute for Atomic and Molecular Physics in Amsterdam. Their method involved using a stroboscope and a laser that uses attosecond pulses to film electron motion. Attosecond pulses are a new technology that generate short pulses from intense laser light. An attosecond is equal to 1/1000000000000000000th of a second (that’s 18 zeroes in the denominator).