Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have come up with a way to shrink a research instrument generally associated with large machines down to a pinpoint-precision probe.

This electron spin resonance probe employs a large-scale technique used for decades as a way to explore the overall properties of bulk materials and for the first time makes it useful for exploring tiny objects or specific spots on large ones. The probe is expected to have a broad range of applications in fields ranging from chemistry to semiconductor design and manufacturing.

“We are really over the moon about this work,” says NIST’s Jason Campbell, an electrical engineer whose work often concerns the semiconductor industry. “Our new approach brings more than 20,000 times improvement in sensitivity over conventional ESR and allows for investigation of all sorts of samples that were never thought possible.”

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