Single-Electron Spin Measurement Heralds Deeper Look at Atoms.

After 8 years of effort, physicists in California have pulled off a technical tour de force: detecting the spin of a single electron inside a glassy chip of silica. The feat marks a significant step toward seeing individual atoms inside a material — a prerequisite for building a microscope that could map the three-dimensional structure of molecules — and may prove critical for so-called spintronic devices, including some kinds of quantum computers. They can peer inside materials with magnetic resonance imaging — aligning the spin of protons in a sample's hydrogen atoms, zapping them with radio waves, and using an induction coil to track the changing magnetic fields as the energized protons return to their equilibrium spin states.