For William E. Moerner, a paper with measurement data mark an important step in the development of microscopes capable of showing levels of detail that had previously been impossible.
When an electron shifts to a lower energy level, light is emitted. When it shifts to a higher energy level, light is absorbed. The wavelengths of the light emitted differ for each element. In 1989, Moerner succeeded in measuring the light-absorption for a single molecule. The curves on the paper show which wavelengths were absorbed.
William E. Moerner donated the graph to the Nobel Prize Museum in 2014.
