Neutral helium microscopy and atom optics constitute an innovative imaging paradigm that exploits low-energy, charge-neutral helium atoms to non-destructively investigate surface properties at the ...

Pionic helium In this experiment, a pion – shown here with one orange and one blue particle representing its quark and anti-quark – replaces one of the two electrons in the helium atom. This new ...

In Wednesday's issue of Nature, a new paper describes a potentially useful way of measuring the interactions between normal matter and exotic particles, like antiprotons and unstable items like kaons ...

Physicists at the Australian National University have developed the most sensitive method ever for measuring the potential energy of an atom (within a hundredth of a decillionth of a joule – or 10-35 ...

Physicists have created the first-ever atomic vortex beam — a swirling tornado of atoms and molecules with mysterious properties that have yet to be understood. By sending a straight beam of helium ...

Artificial atoms allow scientists to push the laws of physics to the limit, gaining insight into what we are familiar with already and what we are yet to discover. Researchers have now created a new ...

How big is a helium atom? Or maybe the better question is: How small? After an intricate game of particle jockeying, physicists have now measured the radius of the helium nucleus five times more ...

Recently, a team of scientists was able to detect metastable helium in the upper atmosphere of an exoplanet. This was quite an accomplishment considering it had never been done before. The formation ...

Electron microscopes are great for magnification but they tend to destroy or damage what they are looking at. Similar magnification should be possible using a much lower-energy, gentler beam of helium ...

For the first time, an international team of scientists has succeeded in filming quantum physical effects on a helium dimer as it breaks apart. The film shows the superposition of matter waves from ...