You can’t see well without lenses that can focus, whether those lenses are in your eye or the microscope you peer through. An innovative way to focus beams of neutrons might allow scientists to probe the interiors of opaque objects at a size range they were blind to previously, allowing them to explore the innards of objects from meteorites to cutting-edge manufactured materials without damaging them.

The method, published in Physical Review Letters, could convert what historically has been a support tool for neutron science into a full-fledged scanning technique that could reveal details ranging in size from 1 nanometer up to 10 micrometers within larger objects. The approach provides this tool, known as neutron interferometry, with what are essentially its first movable “lenses” capable of zooming in and out on details in this size range—one that has been difficult to probe, even with other neutron scanning methods.

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