IF NANOTECHNOLOGY ever makes the big time, we’ll need a cheap and accessible way of measuring the features of these diminutive devices. Currently, the only way to do this is with an expensive room-sized machine called a synchrotron, as this is the only source of coherent light at wavelengths short enough to measure such tiny details. But a cheap table-top alternative is on the way.
The light needed to make accurate measurements in tens of nanometres is in the extreme ultraviolet band (EUV). In a synchrotron, a particle accelerator bends the paths of high-energy electrons in such a way that…
