In the most powerful X-ray facilities in the world, scientists can analyze samples so small they contain only 10,000 atoms. Smaller sizes have proved exceedingly difficult to achieve, but a multi-institutional team has scaled down to a single atom. | |
“X-ray beams are used everywhere, including security scanning, medical imaging and basic research,” said Saw Wai Hla, physicist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory and professor at Ohio University. “But since the discovery of X-rays in 1895, scientists have not been able to detect and analyze just one atom. It has been a dream of scientists to be able to do so for decades. Now we can.” | |
As just announced in Nature (“Characterization of just one atom using synchrotron X-rays”), scientists from Argonne and several universities report being able to characterize the elemental type and chemical properties of just one atom by using X-ray beams. This new capability will impact fundamental research in numerous scientific disciplines and development of new technologies. |
The results from X-ray beams yield a sort of fingerprint for the type of elements in a material. For example, the NASA Curiosity rover gathered small samples of sand on the Martian surface, then determined with X-ray analysis that their content is similar to volcanic soil in Hawaii. | |
Using powerful X-ray machines called synchrotron light sources, scientists can analyze samples as small as a billionth of a billionth of a gram. Such samples contain about 10,000 atoms. Smaller sizes have proved exceedingly difficult to achieve, but in an astonishing leap, the team managed to scale down their observations to a single atom. | |
“The word transformative gets bandied about a lot, but this discovery I believe is truly a major breakthrough,” Hla said. “I was so excited I could barely sleep as I imagined possible uses in the development of batteries and microelectronic devices and even in environmental and medical research.” | |
To characterize just one atom with X-rays, it needs to be isolated from the same kind of atoms. To do so, the team first entwined a single iron atom in a nanometer-size molecule composed of different elements. | |
They then took the sample for analysis with the powerful X-ray beam at Argonne’s light source, the Advanced Photon Source (APS). The team detected the single atom in the sample at a beamline (XTIP) shared by the APS and the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM). Both are DOE Office of Science user facilities at Argonne. The beamline includes a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) probe. | |
“A DOE Early Career Research Program Award that I received in 2012 allowed me to form a team of passionate scientists and engineers to develop the microscopy technique used in this study,” said Volker Rose, physicist at the APS and in the CNM. “Together, we developed and built this one-of-a-kind microscope at the XTIP beamline thanks to additional DOE funding.” |
The rush of photons from the X-ray beams bombard the sample, causing it to release electrons. Positioned less than a nanometer above the sample surface, the STM probe collects the electric signal due to the emitted electrons. The resulting spectra (plots of current versus photon energy) are “fingerprints” for the elements in the periodic table. Each element has a unique fingerprint. By probing the sample surface, scientists can thus identify an element of a particular atom and its exact location. | |
There is more. They can also determine the atom’s chemical state from the same spectrum. The chemical state has to do with the fact that atoms can lose a certain number of electrons; for example, iron can lose two, three or four electrons. The chemical state reflects the number of electrons missing and is important for scientists to know because it affects the physical, chemical and electronic properties of the atom. | |
To prove the new capability’s wider applicability, the team successfully repeated the same X-ray analysis with terbium, a rare earth element. Rare earths are critical to microelectronics, batteries, aircraft structures and more. The technique is applicable to elements besides metals as well. By knowing the properties of single atoms, scientists can then exploit their uses in materials in new ways. | |
“Being able to study one atom at a time will revolutionize X-ray applications to an unprecedented level, from quantum information technology to environmental and medical research,” Hla said. |

News
The Surprising Origin of a Deadly Hospital Infection
C. diff might not originate from external transmission but rather from within the infected patient themselves. Hospital staff dedicate significant effort to safeguard patients from infections during their hospital stay. Through practices ranging from [...]
Google AI breakthrough – huge step in finding genes that cause diseases
Google says it has made a significant step in identifying disease-causing genes, which could help spot rare genetic disorders. A new model named AlphaMissense is able to confidently classify 89 per cent of all [...]
New Study: Everyday Pleasures Can Boost Cognitive Performance
MINDWATCH study reveals cognitive peaks with everyday pleasures. Listening to music and drinking coffee are the sorts of everyday pleasures that can impact a person’s brain activity in ways that improve cognitive performance, including [...]
Moderna reveals new highly targeted COVID-19 vaccine mRNA-1283
Moderna has developed a new and improved version of its COVID-19 vaccine. The unique formulation (mRNA-1283) reduces the vaccine's content from the full-length SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to a narrowly focused encoding of just two [...]
New nanotech weapon takes aim at hard-to-treat breast cancer
Breast cancer in its various forms affects more than 250,000 Americans a year. One particularly aggressive and hard-to-treat type is triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), which lacks specific receptors targeted by existing treatments. The rapid [...]
Scientists upcycle plastics into liquids that can store hydrogen energy
Scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have created a process that can upcycle most plastics into chemical ingredients useful for energy storage, using light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and a commercially available catalyst, all [...]
Yale Scientists Uncover How the Immune System Can Alter Our Behavior
The mere scent of seafood can severely sicken those allergic to it — and therefore they are more likely to avoid it. Similarly, individuals who experience food poisoning from a specific dish tend to [...]
Whirlwind Tech – The Future of Energy-Efficient Spintronics Computing
Researchers in Germany and Japan have been able to increase the diffusion of magnetic whirls, so-called skyrmions, by a factor of ten. In today’s world, our lives are unimaginable without computers. Up until now, [...]
Omicron’s Silver Lining: Significantly Lower Risk of Long COVID
Omicron infections have a lower risk of long COVID than earlier variants, according to a study analyzing data from 11,000 participants. The risk of developing long COVID is significantly lower following an infection with [...]
The Hidden Mechanism Connecting Diabetes and Cancer
Researchers have discovered that insulin resistance, typically linked with type 2 diabetes, is also present in cancer patients and can accelerate the spread of the disease. In the 1920s, scientists found that the urine [...]
Scientists Unveil Urea’s Secret Role in the Origin of Life
Scientists from ETH Zurich and the University of Geneva have developed a new technique that allows them to observe chemical reactions taking place in liquids at extremely high temporal resolution. This innovation enables them to track how molecules [...]
Viagra Lowers Alzheimer’s Risk by Almost 70%, Early Study Finds
Research published recently suggests that Pfizer’s erectile dysfunction drug Viagra can decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by up to 69 percent. The research, which was published in Nature, found that the medication has [...]
Future of Medical Imaging: Advanced AI Can Tell Your True Age by Looking at Your Chest
An AI-powered model utilizes chest X-rays to help develop biomarkers for aging. What if determining “your age” was based on your chest rather than your face? Scientists from Osaka Metropolitan University have crafted an [...]
Ultra-sensitive biosensors detect cancer in a blood test
Cancer biomarkers circulating in body fluids can be used for diagnosis and treatment monitoring. However, current detection technology lacks the required sensitivity, limiting biomarker use in clinical applications. Colorectal cancer is the second most [...]
Viruses cause 200+ diseases. This one drug may be able to treat them all.
By taking aim at a process common across many viruses, the drug could one day stop any number of known viruses — and new ones. t’s about as audacious an idea as you can [...]
Scientists Identify Potential Treatment for Rare and Devastating Lung Disease
The findings could lead to a cure for LAM. Researchers from the University of Cincinnati may have identified a potential treatment for lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), a rare lung condition resembling cancer found predominantly in women of reproductive [...]