UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON, LONDON, UK. For the first time, researchers were able to capture the movement of electrons at a billion frames per second. The process was done using gold in order to give the scientists a better understanding of how gold reacts under exotic conditions. At the same time, they were trying to prove a point that gold could actually be useful when applied to new technologies.

The first step in capturing the movement of electrons at a billion frames per second was to hit the gold with a pulse of infrared light. That way, the electrons in the gold atoms were heated which caused it to “ring like a bell”. The next step was to light up the vibrating electrons using an X-ray laser called the Linac Coherent Light Source facilitated by the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The X-ray is necessary because it acts like the flash on a camera which is necessary to illuminate the scene happening during this process. That way, it will be possible to capture all the motion of the atoms while the electrons are still freely moving.

Jesse Clark, a postdoctoral researcher at University College, is the lead author of the research. He said that they used gold because of its stable characteristics especially when used for experiments. At the same time, gold doesn’t easily react with any chemicals around it which makes it an even better choice of element.

The process of imaging the vibrations allowed the scientists to make some very important observations and discoveries at the same time. They found out that the vibrations moved at supersonic speed which created an illusion as if the vibrations start up everywhere simultaneously. Actually, this effect is much similar to a supersonic boom from a jet which seems to lag behind the plane because of its supersonic speed.