Part of the apparatus used by the Spanish team (Credit: Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco)

A mirror capable of reflecting a beam of helium atoms would finally make an atom microscope possible. An atom microscope has several benefits over the electron microscopes in current use. The high speed electrons used in the electron microscope damage or destroy delicate biological samples, making it difficult to get accurate results and impossible to repeat tests. Scientists believe an atom microscope could provide the same level of resolution without any damage to samples. 

In addition, electron microscopes only work on samples with conductive properties and their beams of electrons penetrate into samples, thus failing to image the surface layer of samples. An atom microscope would work on different types of conducive material, semiconductors, and insulating materials equally well. It would map the surface of samples, providing an alternate view and additional information about samples not available through electron microscopes.  

Helium Atom Scattering (HAS) scheme (Credit: Ciudad Universitaria de Cantoblanco)

Several groups of researchers are working on designs for atom microscopes using the Surface Science Laboratory's quantum stabilized atom mirror. It is unclear at this time what the final design of any microscope will encompass other than its use of a curved version of the mirror. 

TFOT has reported on other microscope technology including an ultra compact optical microscope small enough to fit on a finger tip, attempts to create a cell phone microscope, and a new scanning tunneling microscope capable of imaging individual atoms on a surface. 

The Thermal Energy Atomic and Molecular Scattering group at the Surface Science Laboratory describes the scattering process in detail here. Information about the article in the Advanced Materials journal including a link to the article itself (requiring an additional fee) can be found here.