Can We See an Atom? - Comments

[klotza]

klotza submitted a new PF Insights post

Can We See an Atom?

Continue reading the Original PF Insights Post.

 

[anorlunda]

Kudos on your Insights article. Your explanations and graphics helped make it clear.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

I've seen many of these "atom" photos online. Nice to get some explanations!

 

[LittleMrsMonkey]

Wonderful article on the subject by Prof. Philip Moriarty(of SixtySymbols fame) from a couple of years ago.Recommended reading to all:
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/~ppzstm/pdfs/papers/2014/moriarty_visualizing.pdf

 

[eq66]

Thank You for this really nice article !

 

[klotza]

Thank You for this really nice article !

Glad you liked it!

 

[zinq]

Very interesting.

But I'm confused with the image just below the text that reads: "The technology has improved over the years, and now it is possible perform TEM on single-layer graphene and see the atomic structure from a sheet of carbon, which I think is pretty impressive."

This illustration pretty clearly shows carbon atoms as *light* spots, not dark spots. But the caption to the immediately previous image reads: "The bright spots on the image are regions where there are fewer atoms blocking the electrons."

In a TEM image, are the atoms bright, or are they dark?

 

[Amrator]

Great job, Klotza!

 

[klotza]

Great job, Klotza!

Thanks!

 

[Cthulhumon]

Very interesting.

But I'm confused with the image just below the text that reads: "The technology has improved over the years, and now it is possible perform TEM on single-layer graphene and see the atomic structure from a sheet of carbon, which I think is pretty impressive."

This illustration pretty clearly shows carbon atoms as *light* spots, not dark spots. But the caption to the immediately previous image reads: "The bright spots on the image are regions where there are fewer atoms blocking the electrons."

In a TEM image, are the atoms bright, or are they dark?

it depends whether they're dark field or bright field image.

 

[DrDu]

How did Ernst Mach say: "Ah Atome! Ham's scho ans g'sehn?" (Ah atoms! Did you already see one?)

 

[A Gene]

"Can We See an Atom?"

Heck, I've never seen my face. I'm sure I got one.

Have we ever seen the sun, much less other stars? We see their light, yet where are they when we finally perceive them? You can do the math; it's hurting my head to figure it. I am sure these heavenly bodies aren't where they were when we finally perceive their light.

Have we seen the Higgs boson?

<detour> Higgs boson walks into church. Priest says, we don't allow Higgs boson in here. Higgs boson says, yeah, but without me how can you have mass? </detour>

Stick a fork in me. :)

 

[A. Neumaier]

''the tunneling probability depends on the electron density of the surface, so you can actually visualize the wavefunction of the unbound surface electrons, in the images.'' The second half is not quite true, as the wave function of the electrons is a multiparticle wave function and we see something in 3 dimensions. What is visualized is the charge density of the electron field.