Standard optical microscopes have surrendered their once dominant position at the forefront of scientific research to more advanced tools. As we delve deeper into the microscopic world, photons just donÂ’t provide enough detail when there are technologies like X-ray laser and electron microscopy available. Now a team of researchers from Hokkaido University in Japan may have found a way to use ordinary light to detect much smaller objects than has ever been possible before. The key to this technique is one of the more bizarre effects in quantum mechanics known as entanglement.
Most types of microscopy are limited by the Rayleigh diffraction limit. This principle simply states that light cannot be used to resolve a structure smaller than its own wavelength. So if you need to see something smaller than a few hundred nanometers (the shortest wavelength of visible light), a different type of electromagnetic radiation would be needed. X-ray is a popular choice as its wavelength is orders of magnitude shorter than visible light. Scientists have suspected for more than a decade that entanglement could allow photons to circumvent the Rayleigh limit, and thatÂ’s exactly what the Hokkaido University team has done.
