Observing Molecular or Ionic Bonds

by LloydK Fri Nov 11, 2016 1:17 am

World's smallest magnifying glass makes it possible to see chemical bonds between atoms
http://phys.org/news/2016-11-world-smallest-magnifying-glass-chemical.html

... [T]he team used highly conductive gold nanoparticles to make the world's tiniest optical cavity, so small that only a single molecule can fit within it. The cavity—called a 'pico-cavity' by the researchers—consists of a bump in a gold nanostructure the size of a single atom, and confines light to less than a billionth of a metre. The results, reported in the journal Science, open up new ways to study the interaction of light and matter, including the possibility of making the molecules in the cavity undergo new sorts of chemical reactions, which could enable the development of entirely new types of sensors.