When imaging atoms, blurrier is better

^{(July 6, 2020
; Cornell Chronicle)}

Electron microscopy is built on a bitter irony: The process of beaming electrons allows scientists to peer into the atomic structure of biomolecules and materials, but the electrons can also damage their target.

“I can only deliver so many electrons before I fry the sample, but I need a certain number of electrons before I can see the things that I need to see,” said David Muller, the Samuel B. Eckert Professor of Engineering in the Department of Applied and Engineering Physics. “Otherwise, everything’s just lost in this speckly noise. So there’s a trade-off.”
In 2018, Muller co-led a collaboration with Sol Gruner, the John L. Wetherill Professor of Physics, on a high-powered detector that, in combination with a technique called ptychography, set a world record for nanoscale resolution, measuring down to 0.39 ångströms or 0.039 nanometers; a nanometer is one-billionth of a meter.

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