How do you photograph something that moves so fast it can travel the circumference of the earth in 18 seconds?
A UA physicist is hoping a $1.1 million award will allow him to modify an already sophisticated microscope that will enable him to photograph electrons in motion, something no one has ever done.
Mohammed Hassan, an assistant professor of physics and optical sciences at the University of Arizona, was recently awarded the grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation, based in Los Angeles.
The motions of electrons are measured in a unit that most people have never heard of — attosecond, or one quintillionth of a second. In one heart beat, a million trillion attoseconds pass.
“The idea of seeing something humans have never seen before drives me,” Hassan said, according to a UA news release. “Electron motion is in every aspect of life. Even our eyes see because electron motion generates light, transmits information and forms a picture in the brain. By imaging electron motion, we would open a new window into life itself.”
However, even the most expensive, sophisticated electron microscopes can’t photograph something that small, moving that fast.
“To directly capture a clear image of any motion, you need a camera with a shutter speed that is faster than the motion you’re capturing,” Hassan explained in the release. “And you need spatial resolution — or the number of pixels — to be larger than the size of the object you’re capturing.”
The camera Hassan and his team are developing will use a shutter that opens and closes in a single attosecond because anything slower would make an electron appear as a blur.
Hassan has bought a million-dollar commercial transmission electron microscope and is in the process of modifying it to capture images in attoseconds. He calls the technology “attomicroscopy,” and is working with UA’s Tech Launch Arizona to patent the innovation.
The ability to see electrons, or negatively charged particles of atoms, in motion would have real impacts, he said.
Using laser pulses, for example, scientists may be able to control electron motion and spur a technological revolution, with electronics – like smartphones and computers — that could transfer data a million times faster than current speeds. Likewise, by controlling electron motion in chemical compounds, physicians may be able to provide personalized medication for patients based on the structure of their DNA.
“These are just two examples, but the possibilities are endless,” Hassan said.
The grant will give Hassan the opportunity to “solve one of the biggest scientific challenges of our era,” Elizabeth “Betsy” Cantwell, senior vice president for research and innovation at the UA, said in the news release.
In 2013, Hassan was a postdoctoral scholar at the Max-Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Munich, where he developed a device to compress laser pulses, making him a Guinness World Record holder for the fastest pulse of visible light.
Based in Los Angeles, the foundation was established in 1954 by the late W.M. Keck, founder of the Superior Oil Co. The foundation’s grants focus primarily on pioneering efforts in medical research, science and engineering.
