Hello, I'm having a bit of a problem with this concept:

A microscope uses a beam of neutrons, each of which has a kinetic energy of 1KeV. What is the smallest sized object that this microscope can resolve?

I initially wanted to approach this as a straight energy approach; the smallest object that can be resolved must have at least the same amount of energy as the neutron so that the neutron can bounce back to the microscope and create an image. Is this the wrong way to go about the problem?
Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

hi,
Look here for starters.

http://www.physorg.com/news599.html

extract:
principle, neutrons could provide better image resolution than visible light because they have shorter wavelengths—as short as 1 nanometer (nm) compared to 400-700 nm. In this demonstration at NIST’s Center for Neutron Research, the microscope produced a resolution of only 0.5 millimeters and a magnification of about 10. However, Adelphi hopes to substantially improve image resolution through research to reduce lens aberrations. The company also hopes to build a compact, laboratory-scale neutron source.

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In optical microscopes, maximum resolution is related to the wavelength of light.

See: http://www.microscopyu.com/articles/...esolution.html

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0415113908.htm

Perhaps, the question you need to answer is the wavelength of a neutron beam of 1 KeV. I would look up how the equation in the first link is applied to electron microscopes. Note, a few techinques have extended the resolution of light microscopy past that predicted by the wavelength (e.g., scanning methods and confocal microscopy), but I do not suspect your professor expects you to apply those methods to a neutron beam. John

 

Thank you, I appreciate both of the replies. I was unaware that the wavelength of the neutron had a factor in this problem, but that would make sense considering we were also studying the deBroglie phenomenon. I never would have considered that.