Illustration of a single atom shadow with the atom shadow on the right end of the cylinder. Credit: Griffith University

Scientists at the at the Centre for Quantum Dynamics at Griffith University in Brisbane, Queensland, in Australia – have captured the first ever image of an atom’s shadow.

This remarkable achievement could assist in the development of quantum computing and provide answers for the future of biological imaging.

To succeed in taking the picture the researchers used a custom-built system. This system took the most high-resolution image ever of a single atom last year.

“The question is, how many atoms do you need to cast a shadow? We found that it only takes one,” said David Kielpinski, who was a co-author of the paper which was published in Nature Communications.

_______________
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/journal/v3/n7/full/ncomms1944.html
______________________________