America will build the world's first quantum X-ray microscope using quantum entanglement

A research team from Brookhaven National Laboratory has developed a completely new X-ray microscope, who in his work uses the quantum world to form "ghost images" of biomolecules in high permission. That's what I want to tell you about now.

What is the essence of the new X-ray microscope

Without a doubt, classic X-ray microscopes are very useful units that allow you to view various samples with the highest resolution. But there is one peculiarity: the radiation used in the process of work can simply destroy sensitive samples, such as viruses, bacteria or some cells.

Of course, you can reduce the radiation intensity to an acceptable level and the cells will remain intact, but the clarity of the image will be greatly affected.

Engineers at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) have found a way to reduce the intensity of the radiation, while maintaining the utmost clarity.

For this, it was decided to use the quirks of the quantum world - quantum entanglement.

So in a classical X-ray microscope, a beam of photons passes through the sample under study and is then collected by the detector on the other side.

And in a new microscope with used quantum amplification, the X-ray beam is split into two halves. In this case, only one half passes through the sample under study, but strange as it may sound, both halves are involved in the measurements.

Quantum entanglement in action

The question is quite logical: How did this become possible? And all thanks to such a not yet fully understood phenomenon as quantum entanglement. That is, two particles can be so intertwined with each other that a change in one will lead to instantaneous change in another particle and at the same time it does not matter at all what distance between particles in this moment.

This means that the exchange of information between particles occurs at a speed that significantly exceeds the speed of light.

So in the case of our new X-ray microscope, the splitter produces pairs of entangled photons. In this case, one of them is passed through the sample and transmits information to the detector according to the usual scheme.

But the moment the first photon changes, the same changes occur in the second photon, which in no way interacted with the material under study. Then, when the second photon hits its detector, additional information is taken from it and thus a clear image of the object under study is created.

Although at first glance it seems illogical, but due to precise mathematical calculations, scientists manage to combine information from two rays.

This process is called ghost imaging, and prior to the new development was only possible with photons in the visible light spectrum.

The new microscope will be the first in the world to adapt this technology to X-rays. Thus, making it possible to obtain images, the size of the samples, which are less than 10 nanometers, while the test samples remain intact.

The X-ray microscope will be based on the National Synchronous Light Source II (NSLS-II). And if everything goes according to plan, the first images can be examined in detail as early as 2023.

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