Cold atoms could replace hot gallium in focused ion beams

Scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a radical new method of focusing a stream of ions into a point as small as one nanometre (one billionth of a metre). Because of the versatility of their approach - it can be used with a wide range of ions tailored to the task at hand - it is expected to have broad application in nanotechnology both for carving smaller features on semiconductors than now are possible and for nondestructive imaging of nanoscale structures with finer resolution than currently possible with electron microscopes...

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