Unleashing some of the most promising energy technologies of
tomorrow—from electric vehicle fuel cells to
photovoltaics—hinges upon understanding tiny structures spanning
just billionths of a meter. One way to explore this critical
nanoscale world is by sending high-intensity x-ray beams through
materials, similar to the way doctors capture images of internal
bone structure using large x-ray devices. The challenge with
fringe physics, however, is that focusing that penetrating power
on just a single nanometer takes an entirely different caliber
of lens. Using a massive, custom-built deposition device,
Brookhaven Lab scientist Ray Conley and his team are able to
grow special lenses one atomic layer at a time. As intense
x-rays pass through these multilayer Laue lenses (MLL), the
light diffracts and bends toward a single point. Creating these
atomically precise optics is no small feat, and Conley continues
to tweak the process of growing light-bending films and carving
them into precise lenses. Check out the vi