Researchers at UC Riverside have developed a method for squeezing tungsten lamp light into a 6-nanometer area at the end of a silver nanowire.
Rather of having to settle with molecular vibrations, scientists may now achieve color imaging at a "unprecedented" level.
The researchers tweaked an existing "superfocusing" technology (which was previously used to detect vibrations) to detect signals throughout the visible spectrum.
Light travels along a conical path, similar to that of a flashlight.
The device records the impact of an object on the form and color of the beam as the nanowire's tip passes over it (including through a spectrometer).
The scientists can make color photographs of carbon nanotubes that would otherwise seem gray by using two sections of spectra for every 6nm pixel.
Scientists have created new materials for next-generation electronics that are so small that they are not only unidentifiable when tightly packed, but they also don't reflect enough light for even the most powerful optical microscopes to reveal minute features like colors.
Carbon nanotubes, for example, appear grey under an optical microscope.
Scientists find it difficult to investigate nanoparticles' unique features and find methods to improve them for industrial application since they can't differentiate small details and variations between individual pieces.
Researchers from UC Riverside describe a revolutionary imaging technology that compresses lamp light into a nanometer-sized spot in a new paper published in Nature Communications.
Like a Hogwarts student learning the "Lumos" spell, it keeps the light at the end of a silver nanowire and utilizes it to show previously unseen features, including colors.
Scientists will be able to examine nanomaterials in enough detail to make them more useful in electronics and other applications thanks to the breakthrough, which improves color imaging resolution to an unparalleled 6 nanometer level.
With a superfocusing approach developed by the team, Ming Liu and Ruoxue Yan, associate professors at UC Riverside's Marlan and Rosemary Bourns College of Engineering, created this unique instrument.
Previous research has utilized the technology to examine molecular bond vibrations at 1-nanometer spatial resolution without the need of a focusing lens.
Liu and Yan improved the method in the current paper to measure signals covering the whole visible wavelength range, which may be used to produce color and portray the object's electrical band structures rather than just molecular vibrations.
Light from a tungsten lamp is squeezed into a silver nanowire with near-zero scattering or reflection, where it is conveyed by the oscillation wave of free electrons at the silver surface.
The condensed light travels in a conical route from the silver nanowire tip, which has a radius of only 5 nanometers, similar to a flashlight's light beam.
The impact of an item on the beam shape and color is detected and recorded as the tip passes over it.
"It's like controlling the water spray from a hose with your thumb," Liu said.
"You know how to change the thumb position to acquire the desired spraying pattern, and similarly, in the experiment, we read the light pattern to extract the specifics of the item obstructing the 5 nm-sized light nozzle." The light is then concentrated into a spectrometer, where it takes the shape of a small ring.
The researchers can colorize absorption and scattering pictures by scanning the probe across an area and capturing two spectra for each pixel.
The previously grey carbon nanotubes are photographed in color for the first time, and each carbon nanotube may now display its own distinct hue.
"The imaging is dependent on the atomically clean sharp-tip silver nanowire and its almost scatterless optical coupling and focusing," Yan stated.
"Otherwise, there would be a lot of stray light in the backdrop, which would sabotage the entire thing." The researchers believe the new approach will be useful in assisting the semiconductor sector in producing homogenous nanomaterials with consistent characteristics for use in electronic devices.
The new full-color nano-imaging approach should help researchers learn more about catalysis, quantum optics, and nanoelectronics.
Xuezhi Ma, who worked on the topic as part of his PhD research at UCR Riverside, joined Liu, Yan, and Ma in the study.
The study is titled "6 nm super-resolution optical transmission and scattering spectroscopic imaging of carbon nanotubes employing a nanometer-scale white light source."
Although the ability to compress light is impressive in and of itself, the creators believe it will play a significant role in nanotechnology.
Semiconductor manufacturers may be able to create more consistent nanomaterials for use in chips and other tightly packed devices.
The constricted light might also help mankind grasp nanoelectronics, quantum optics, and other scientific domains that haven't had this resolution before.
~ Jai Krishna Ponnappan
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