A group of engineers has developed a slide coating that looks simple enough. However, it is highly relevant to microscopes. The new invention will bolster up the resolution of microscopes, and it will aid in the imaging of small objects. The application of the slide coating is expected to be profound despite the fact its appearance looks highly straightforward.
First of all, what do you think is the resolution of an average microscope? Well, if you take a light-powered microscope, for example, then it has a resolution of 200 nanometers (approximately). Now, the problem here is that if you want to examine anything smaller or more compact than what the resolution allows, then the result is poor, if not impossible. Nevertheless, now with this new invention, the resolution is expected to be enhanced significantly.
A group of the engineering team working at the University of California situated in San Diego have devised a clever way to enhance the resolution of a normal microscope. The genius of their work is that they can make a conventional microscope better without even changing the lens or optic power or anything.
The Old Theory
Now, as per a theory put forward back in 1896, the resolution of a conventional lens depends on a lot of factors. Not only do we have to take the optical nature of the lens into account, but also the characteristics of light itself. Yes, the diffraction of light as it passes through the lens must be taken into account while defining the resolution of a microscope. The primary demerit of this limitation is that you cannot differentiate two subatomic particles existing in proximity with each other at a few nanometers in length. It is almost similar to the merge plot limitation of a radar. The two objects lined on top of each with even a thousand meters vertical distance will be treated as a single object. Therefore, if they are two particles within nanometers, proximity will be seen as one particle.
The Solution
However, there is a solution to this. Instead of a conventional microscope, if you use an electron microscope, it will enhance the resolution and give you images of particles that are even one nanometer away from each other. Yet, the usage of such a microscope goes downhill if you consider the fact that it can be fired in only a vacuum environment. Therefore, if you have to analyze a microbe, you would have to fire the electron beam while keeping the microbe in the vacuum chamber. And, here is the demerit, in case you haven’t guessed it already: microbes and living cells die in a vacuum. Hence, analyzing through electron microscopes becomes inconvenient in some cases and impossible in others.
Now, a group of engineers serving the University of California has figured out a solution for this. And, they didn’t attempt to tinker with the optical or lens characteristics of the microscope. Instead, the engineers have emphasized the environment in which the observation can take place. They have developed what is called “hyperbolic metamaterials.” These things have unique characteristics to change the behavior of light. And, if you apply these materials to the slide of the microscope, you can achieve the desired result.
If you choose to pass an EM wave of light through “hyperbolic materials,” you would discover specks of patterns as a result. The cause of this is the components of “hyperbolic materials.” They are made up of attenuating silica and silver glass that scatters and shortens the wave of light passing through it.
Meta Description
To study the constituents of any microbe, it is imperative to use a high-resolution microscope. And, engineers have found a clever way of achieving this objective.
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