Microscope that reveals the chemical composition of samples developed

Researchers in Italy have come up with a new-generation optical microscope that is able to analyse the chemical composition of samples, opening up new prospects for use in life sciences and materials research. Published in the journal Optica, the development is the result of research coordinated by Italy with the Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology of the National Research Council in Milan, and with the participation of Milan Polytechnic University, Columbia University and Stanford University.

The new microscope will make it possible, for example, to study innovative two-dimensional materials or to analyse microplastics, such as those found in the environment and in animal tissue. This is because the technology used in the instrument makes it possible to overcome the long period of time - one second for every point - taken by conventional microscopes to acquire a detailed image of the sample. In fact until now it has been necessary to scan the surface of the sample in order to analyse each point.

Now scientists have made it possible to measure all the points of the sample at the same time, removing the spatial or spectral filters used in traditional techniques. This method, based on interferometry, combines high efficiency with the possibility of simultaneously acquiring several data from the same sample.