World's Fastest Electron Camera Can Capture Nature's Speediest Processes (VIDEO)

First Posted: Aug 06, 2015 08:50 AM EDT

Scientists have created an ultra-fast electron camera that can capture some of nature's speediest processes. Using a method known as ultrafast electron diffraction (UED), the camera can reveal motions of electrons and atomic nuclei within molecules that take place in less than a tenth of a trillionth of a second.

"We've built one of the world's best UED systems to create new research opportunities in ultrafast science," said Xijie Wang, one of the researchers, in a news release. "Our apparatus delivers electron beams with a better quality than any other UED machine. For example, it allows us to study chemical processes in the gas phase that are up to four times faster than those we can examine with current UED technologies."

The new instrument is huge for ultrafast studies with SLAC's X-ray free-electron laser. Similar to X-ray light, highly energetic electrons can take snapshots of the interior of materials as they pass through them. Yet electrons interact differently with materials and "see" different things. Both methods combined draw a more complete picture that will help researchers better understand and control important ultrafast processes in complex systems ranging from magnetic data storage devices to chemical reactions.

The new UED system's performance is largely due to a very stable "electron gun" that produces highly energetic electrons that are packed into extremely short bunches. The gun fires out 120 of these bunches every second, generating a powerful electron beam that researchers can then use to probe objects on the inside.

"Ultrafast electron microscopy will bring two established, independent communities together: researchers working in electron microscopy and in ultrafast X-ray science," said Hermann Durr, co-author of the new study, in a news release. "This will generate unforeseen possibilities for ultrafast science with electrons, similar to the great things we saw happening a few years ago at LCLS, when laser science and X-ray science merged into the new field of ultrafast X-ray science."

The findings are published in the journal Review of Scientific Instruments