Heisenberg γ-Ray Microscope

 Heisenberg imagined a microscope that achieves extremely fine resolution by illuminating with high-energy gamma rays. Although such a microscope does not exist at the moment, it may theoretically be built. Heisenberg envisaged seeing an electron and measuring its position using this microscope.

Gamma Ray Microscope 

A gamma ray is the highest-energy electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelength. The wavelengths of gamma-ray radiation are typically a few tenths of an angstrom (1010 metre), and gamma-ray photons have energy of tens of thousands of electron volts.

Heisenberg gamma ray-

 The uncertainty relations revealed by Heisenberg in 1927 simply the outcome of the equations utilised, or are they embedded in every measurement? Heisenberg used a thought experiment because he felt that all scientific concepts must be defined using actual or possible experimental observations. Heisenberg imagined a microscope that achieves extremely fine resolution by illuminating with high-energy gamma rays. Although such a microscope does not exist at the moment, it may theoretically be built. Heisenberg envisaged seeing an electron and measuring its position using this microscope. He discovered that the electron’s position and momentum obeyed the mathematically established uncertainty relation. The experiment had certain problems, which Bohr pointed out, but after these were fixed, the demonstrations were flawless.

How is gamma ray produced?

During the disintegration of radioactive atomic nuclei and the decay of some subatomic particles, gamma rays are created. The process of pair annihilation, in which an electron and its antiparticle, a positron, vanish and two photons are created, also produces gamma rays. They can also be produced when some unstable subatomic particles, such as the neutral ion decay.

History of Gamma Ray-

Following early studies of the discharges of radioactive nuclei, British physicist Ernest Rutherford created the name gamma ray in 1903. Atoms contain distinct energy levels associated with different orbital electron configurations, and atomic nuclei have energy level structures specified by the configurations of the protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus. While energy variations between atomic energy levels are normally in the range of 1 to 10 eV, energy differences in nuclei are often in the range of 1 keV to 10 MeV (million electron volts). A photon is emitted when a nucleus transitions from a high-energy level to a lower-energy level, carrying away the surplus energy; nuclear energy levels correspond to photon wavelengths in the gamma-ray area.

Compton Scattered light

Compton scattering is a powerful probe for studying the behaviour of valence electrons in any material. Compton scattered photon spectra provide unique information about the electron momentum distribution of target materials’ valence electrons, and thus their electrical characteristics. When the incident radiation is circularly polarised, Compton scattering from unpaired electrons, also known as magnetic Compton scattering, can be used to investigate the spin momentum distribution in ferro- and ferri-magnetic materials. The introduction, instruments used, and representative applications of charge and magnetic Compton spectroscopy are all covered in this article.

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

• The uncertainty principle of Heisenberg is a fundamental principle in quantum mechanics. It goes something like this: if we know exactly where a particle is (the uncertainty of position is tiny), we know nothing about its momentum (the uncertainty of momentum is huge), and vice versa. Other quantities, such as energy and time, have their own versions of the uncertainty principle. The uncertainty principles of momentum-position and energy-time are discussed individually.
• Despite the fact that the thought experiment was written as an introduction to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle, one of the pillars of modern physics, it attacks the very premises upon which it was built, thereby contributing to the development of a branch of physics—quantum mechanics—that redefined the terms under which the original thought experiment was conceived.

Gamma ray

• Gamma-ray microscopes don’t exist – they’re difficult to make. However, as Heisenberg observed the development of new microscopes that used higher and higher energy beams (as opposed to the visible spectrum’s 1.5-3 eV light) to increase angular resolution and thus be able to see smaller things, he speculated that gamma-rays may be used for imaging. Gamma rays are the most powerful radiation, with frequencies above 10 exahertz (or >1019 Hz) and energy exceeding 100 keV. (i.e. 100,000 more than photons in the visible light spectrum, and 1000 times more than the electrons used in an average electron microscope).
• Gamma rays are emitted during the decay of atomic nuclei, not as a result of an electron jumping from a higher to a lower energy level (gamma decay). Heisenberg envisioned that we could shine gamma rays on an electron and then see the electron in the microscope because some of the gamma photons would collide with the electron and end up in the microscope.

Conclusion

Heisenberg imagined a microscope that achieves extremely fine resolution by illuminating with high-energy gamma rays. A gamma ray is the highest-energy electromagnetic radiation with the shortest wavelength. Compton scattering is a powerful probe for studying the behaviour of valence electrons in any material. Gamma rays are emitted during the decay of atomic nuclei, not as a result of an electron jumping from a higher to a lower energy level (gamma decay). The uncertainty principles of momentum-position and energy-time are discussed individually.