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18h ago

MIT Physicists Capture First Images of Free-Moving Atoms, Confirming Quantum Predictions

Using a novel atom-resolved microscopy technique, researchers visualized boson bunching and fermion pairing in free space for the first time, validating century-old quantum theories.

First Ever Image Of “Free Floating” Atoms Snapped By MIT Scientists
Groundbreaking discovery: MIT team sees individual atoms behaving like waves, proving 100-year-old quantum theory

Overview

  • MIT researchers developed an 'atom-resolved microscopy' method to freeze and image individual atoms in free space with unprecedented resolution.
  • The team captured direct images of bosons bunching together as a de Broglie wave and fermions pairing, phenomena foundational to quantum mechanics and superconductivity.
  • The findings, published on May 5, 2025, in *Physical Review Letters*, confirm theoretical predictions first proposed by Louis de Broglie in 1924.
  • Independent teams led by Wolfgang Ketterle (MIT) and Tarik Yefsah (ENS Paris) published similar imaging techniques in the same journal issue, corroborating the breakthrough.
  • MIT's team plans to apply the technique to explore complex quantum phenomena, such as the quantum Hall effect, which remains poorly understood.