High resolution patterning of aero gels was successfully achieved by employing, instead of gamma rays, a collimated X-Ray beam source at Argonne National Laboratory. These experiments, conducted by undergraduates, showed that patterns as small as a few microns can be realized.

By moving the sample in front of the incident beam, complicated patterns, like our University’s name, can be created (the length of the black bar is 400 microns, or 0.4 millimeters). Writing has never been lighter, at least for these physicists!