A team at Tohoku University in Japan, led by associate professor Kouichi Hayashi, has succeeded in 3D atomic imaging using a time-inverted version of
photoelectron holography. The research group, in collaboration with Tohoku Techo Arch Company, constructed an apparatus for internal-detector electron holography based on a scanning electron microscope (SEM).
The technique, called photoelectron holography, produces the electron-generated equivalent of the visible-light holograms now seen so often as a security feature on credit cards and in three-dimensional displays.
In photoelectron holography, a burst of finely tuned X-rays illuminates a small patch on a crystal surface.