Inside the Crystal Matrix: New “X-Ray Vision” Technique Sees Inside Crystals
The new technique allows scientists to see each particle that makes up colloidal crystals and to create dynamic three-dimensional models. Credit: Shihao Zang, NYU
Developing transparent particles and imaging their positions, researchers shed light on never-before-seen interiors of crystalline structures.
A team of New York University researchers has created a new way to visualize crystals by peering inside their structures, akin to having X-ray vision. Their new technique—which they aptly named “Crystal Clear”—combines the use of transparent particles and microscopes with lasers that allow scientists to see each unit that makes up the crystal and to create dynamic three-dimensional models.
“This is a powerful platform for studying crystals,” says Stefano Sacanna, professor of chemistry at NYU and the principal investigator for the study, published in the journal Nature Materials. “Previously, if you looked at a colloidal crystal through a microscope, you could only get a sense of its shape and structure of the surface. But we can now see inside and know the position of every unit in the structure.”
Atomic crystals are solid materials whose building blocks are positioned in a repeating, orderly fashion. Every now and then, an atom is missing or out of place, resulting in a defect. The arrangement of atoms and defects is what creates different crystalline materials—from table salt to diamonds—and gives them their properties.
