"We are able to see single atoms in these interesting clouds of atoms and what they are doing in relation to each other, which is beautiful," says Martin Zwierlein, the Thomas A. Frank Professor of Physics at MIT. In a groundbreaking achievement, MIT scientists in the USA have successfully captured the first-ever images of individual atoms interacting freely in space. This milestone unveils the elusive quantum effects that govern their behavior, confirming decades of theoretical predictions.
The researchers developed a unique technique to briefly trap atoms using a lattice of light. This allowed them to photograph never-before-seen interactions between bosons and fermions. The images show bosons clustering into wave-like formations and fermions forming pairs, mechanisms linked to superconductivity.
Published in Physical Review Letters on May 5, 2025, these findings provide a powerful new way to observe quantum phenomena in real space. The team's atom-resolved microscopy technique involves corralling atoms in a laser beam trap, then freezing them with a light lattice before illuminating and capturing their positions.
The team successfully imaged clouds of different atoms, capturing bosons bunching into waves and fermions pairing up. This pairing is a key process involved in superconductivity. Going forward, the team will apply their imaging technique to visualize more exotic and less understood phenomena, such as "quantum Hall physics".