Imagine a shadow cast by... a single atom. A fascinating scientific pursuit led by a team of researchers at Griffith University in Queensland, Australia, sought to uncover just how many atoms it takes to cast a shadow. To their astonishment, they discovered that a solitary atom was sufficient.
This revelation didn't come easy. It took the researchers an extensive period of five years, patiently waiting for the atom to freeze and for its shadow to darken enough to be visible.
In an exciting turn of events, David Kielpinski and his team of scientists isolated atomic ions of ytterbium, a soft, silvery metal with an atomic number of 70. Their experimental setup involved a high vacuum trap maintained at a temperature of just a few millikelvins.
The decisive moment came when a lone ion was bombarded with light at a precise frequency, casting its shadow onto a detector. Finally, the digital camera, hooked to a state-of-the-art high-resolution electron microscope, captured the groundbreaking image you see in the figure. The shadow of a single atom, a breakthrough that opens new doors in the realm of atomic research.
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