The images of molecular bonds, described today (June 5) in the journal Nature, were achieved using a light-based microscope technique, called Raman spectroscopy, which has existed for nearly 100 years. But the new approach refined the process to get dramatically better results.

"For a long time, it seemed like how much spatial resolution that you can actually get with these optical spectroscopic techniques was limited," said Joanna Atkin, a physicist at the University of Colorado who wrote an accompanying News & Views article in Nature.