CW laser and sharp tip push optical imaging to 0.1 nm, revealing atoms
A team uses a continuous-wave mid-infrared laser and a needle-sharp metal tip to squeeze light into sub-atomic gaps, producing near-field optical tunneling emission that resolves atomic-scale features down to about 0.1 nanometers—roughly 100,000 times smaller than conventional diffraction-limited optics. The method works with standard lasers and could enable widespread atomic-scale optical imaging in catalysts, semiconductors, and quantum materials, with findings published in Nano Letters.
