MemoryStone

Electron spectroscopy identifies atoms in a cross section of an artificially layered material. Upper left shows an edge between layers of lanthanum and manganese atoms; upper right, an edge between lanthanum and titanium; lower left, a manganese-lanthanum edge; lower right, all three images combined. A line of purple shows that manganese and titanium atoms are mixing across their boundary, a problem that needs to be fixed to make the material useful. (Credit: Robert Muller) 

New Electron Microscope Identifies Individual Color-coded Atoms