Researchers map electric fields of atoms

A group of researchers from various Australian and Japanese universities have jointly developed a new type of electron microscope. With the device, the electric fields of atoms can be viewed.

The new electron microscope, developed by scientists from Australia’s Monash University, the Japanese University of Tokyo and the Science and Technology Agency, is a variant of a scanning transmission electron microscope, or stem. An electron beam is fired at atoms, and the degree to which the beams are deflected by the electric field of those atoms allows the researchers to visualize those fields.

Visualizing the electric fields would provide new insights into their structure. According to one of the researchers at Monash University’s School of Physics, the researchers are seeing details they’ve never seen before. A better understanding of electric fields on a very small scale could lead to new, advanced materials, including for data storage. The production of solar cells and battery technology could also benefit from more knowledge of electric fields on an atomic scale.