X-ray imaging of atomic nuclei

Optically imaging atomic nuclei is a long-sought goal for scientific and applied research, but it has never been realized so far. We integrate aberration-corrected scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), the bremsstrahlung generation of X-ray photons, and the energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopic (EDS) receiving and mapping of the photons into a new microscopy method of optical imaging, by which atomic nuclei of different materials are successfully imaged with X-ray photons. Moreover, this imaging method is shown to be workable with different STEM instruments and be capable of distinguishing atomic nuclei of different elements and resolving imaged size differences of atomic nuclei with the order of magnitude as small as 1 pm. Therefore, it is a general method that can image atomic nuclei and their evolutions in materials science, chemistry and physics.