Can a neutron microscope ever match an electron microscope's resolution?
Neutrons, like electrons, have a wavelength that could in principle be used for microscopy: how does the achievable resolving power of a neutron microscope compare to an electron microscope, and what fundamentally limits it?
History and references
Partly settled. Some of it is understood, some is still argued about.
Kapitza's problem #186 asks students to compare the resolving power of a hypothetical neutron microscope to an electron microscope and to identify the fundamental difficulties involved. Unlike electrons, neutrons are hard to focus with simple electromagnetic lenses and available neutron sources are far dimmer than electron guns, so decades after Kapitza posed the question neutron imaging remains useful mainly for radiography and diffraction-based structural studies rather than high-resolution real-space microscopy competitive with electron microscopes; advances in neutron optics (focusing mirrors, magnetic lenses) and next-generation spallation sources continue to push achievable resolution as an active engineering and physics research area.
The same de Broglie wavelength argument that makes electron microscopes see atoms tells you neutrons should work too, yet seventy years later a practical neutron microscope with comparable resolution still does not exist.
Explanations that circulated
- Neutron microscopy resolution is limited only by neutron wavelength the same way electron microscopy is limited by electron wavelength (in practice it is dominated by the much lower available neutron flux/brightness from reactor and spallation sources, and the difficulty of neutron optics, not wavelength alone)
References
- Neutron microscopy and imaging (general status, various review sources), Various authors, Multiple journals (neutron imaging community), 2023
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