【#Tech24H】A research team at the Institute for Molecular Science, part of the Natural Sciences Research Organization of Japan, has developed a novel microscopy technique called the “atomic camera”. Using a single ultracold atom as a “probe”, they image optical fields at the nanoscale. This technique not only measures light intensity distribution but also, for the first time, directly visualises the polarisation structure of light, achieving spatial resolution below 100 nanometres and surpassing the diffraction limit of conventional optical microscopes. This technology is expected to be applied in quantum computing and other emerging quantum technology fields. Moreover, the method has achieved direct imaging of the polarisation structure of light for the first time. The team discovered that a simple linearly polarised laser beam, after being tightly focused, forms a complex polarisation structure near the focal point, subtle microscale changes that were previously difficult to observe can now be clearly recorded by the “atomic camera”.