Filming the film: Scientists observe photographic exposure live at the nanoscale

Photoinduced chemical reactions are responsible for many fundamental processes and technologies, from energy conversion in nature to micro fabrication by photo-lithography. One process that is known from everyday's life and can be observed by the naked eye, is the exposure of photographic film. At DESY's X-ray light source PETRA III, scientists have now monitored the chemical processes during a photographic exposure at the level of individual nanoscale grains in real-time. The advanced experimen...