{"id":92245,"date":"2019-06-17T12:24:45","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T19:24:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/new-quantum-dot-microscope-shows-electric-potentials-of-individual-atoms"},"modified":"2019-06-17T12:24:45","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T19:24:45","slug":"new-quantum-dot-microscope-shows-electric-potentials-of-individual-atoms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/new-quantum-dot-microscope-shows-electric-potentials-of-individual-atoms","title":{"rendered":"New quantum dot microscope shows electric potentials of individual atoms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-quantum-dot-microscope-shows-electric-potentials-of-individual-atoms2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A team of researchers from J\u00fclich in cooperation with the University of Magdeburg has developed a new method to measure the electric potentials of a sample at atomic accuracy. Using conventional methods, it was virtually impossible until now to quantitatively record the electric potentials that occur in the immediate vicinity of individual molecules or atoms. The new scanning quantum dot microscopy method, which was recently presented in the journal <i>Nature Materials<\/i> by scientists from Forschungszentrum J\u00fclich together with partners from two other institutions, could open up new opportunities for chip manufacture or the characterization of biomolecules such as DNA.<\/p>\n<p>The positive atomic nuclei and negative electrons of which all matter consists produce electric potential fields that superpose and compensate each other, even over very short distances. Conventional methods do not permit quantitative measurements of these small-area fields, which are responsible for many material properties and functions on the nanoscale. Almost all established methods capable of imaging such potentials are based on the measurement of forces that are caused by electric charges. Yet these forces are difficult to distinguish from other forces that occur on the nanoscale, which prevents quantitative measurements.<\/p>\n<p>Four years ago, however, scientists from Forschungszentrum J\u00fclich discovered a method based on a completely different principle. Scanning quantum dot microscopy involves attaching a single organic molecule\u2014the quantum dot\u2014to the tip of an atomic <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/tags\/force\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">force<\/a> microscope. This molecule then serves as a probe. \u201cThe molecule is so small that we can attach individual electrons from the tip of the atomic force microscope to the molecule in a controlled manner,\u201d explains Dr. Christian Wagner, head of the Controlled Mechanical Manipulation of Molecules group at J\u00fclich\u2019s Peter Gr\u00fcnberg Institute (PGI-3).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A team of researchers from J\u00fclich in cooperation with the University of Magdeburg has developed a new method to measure the electric potentials of a sample at atomic accuracy. Using conventional methods, it was virtually impossible until now to quantitatively record the electric potentials that occur in the immediate vicinity of individual molecules or atoms. [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1523,4,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computing","category-nanotechnology","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92245\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}