Swiss Light Source - SLS

22. April 2013

Germanium – zum Leuchten gezogen

Actualités Matière et matériaux Micro- et nanotechnologie Recherche sur les matériaux

Forscher des PSI und der ETH Zürich haben mit Kollegen vom Politecnico di Milano in der aktuellen Ausgabe der wissenschaftlichen Fachzeitschrift "Nature Photonics" eine Methode erarbeitet, einen Laser zu entwickeln, der schon bald in den neuesten Computern eingesetzt werden könnte. Damit könnte die Geschwindigkeit, mit der einzelne Prozessorkerne im Chip miteinander kommunizieren, drastisch erhöht werden. So würde die Leistung der Rechner weiter steigen.
Cette actualité n'existe qu'en allemand.

25. February 2013

Computed tomography provides real-time 3D pictures showing how oil and water flow in porous rock

Media Releases

For the first time, experiments using computed tomography have allowed scientists to observe in 3D the flow of oil and water in real rock on an unprecedented scale. The new approach trailed and the information gathered by the experiments contribute to an improved understanding of multiphase flow and transport in porous media.

12. February 2013

Superconductors surprise with intriguing properties

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Synchrotron Light

Scientists at the Paul Scherrer Institute, together with Chinese and German collaborators, have obtained new insights into a class of high-temperature superconductors. The experimental results of this fundamental research study indicate that magnetic interactions are of central importance in the phenomenon of high-temperature superconductivity. This knowledge could help to develop superconductors with enhanced technical properties in the future.

7. February 2013

Imaging fluctuations with X-ray microscopy

Media Releases

X-rays are used to investigate nanoscale structures of objects as varied as single cells or magnetic storage media. Yet, high-resolution images impose extreme constraints on both the X ray microscope and the samples under investigation. Researchers at the Technische Universität München the PSI now showed how to relax these conditions without loss of image quality. They further showed how to image objects featuring fast fluctuations, such as the rapid switching events that determine the life time of data storage in magnetic materials.

31. January 2013

Magnetic nano-chessboard puts itself together

Media Releases Micro- and Nanotechnology Materials Research Matter and Material Research Using Synchrotron Light

Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute and the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research have been able to intentionally ‘switch off’ the magnetization of every second molecule in an array of magnetized molecules and thereby create a ‘magnetic nano-chessboard’. To achieve this, they manipulated the quantum state of a part of the molecules in a specific way.

17. October 2012

The evolutionary origins of our pretty smile

Media Releases Biology User Experiments Research Using Synchrotron Light

Until recently, it was not obvious whether the earliest vertebrates (animals with a backbone) which had jawbones already possessed teeth or not. Now, an international research team has shown that the jaws of the prehistoric fish Compagopiscis already had teeth. This means that teeth appeared at the same evolutionary time as jaws – or at least shortly afterwards. The leaders of this project were scientists from the University of Bristol, England, who carried out their decisive experiments at the SLS at PSI.

16. October 2012

X-rays provide insights into volcanic processes

Media Releases Research Using Synchrotron Light Environment User Experiments

Experiments performed at the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI) investigate processes inside volcanic materials that determine whether a volcano will erupt violently or mildly. In the experiments, scientists heated small pieces of volcanic material similarly to conditions present at the beginning of a volcanic eruption. They used X-rays from the SLS to observe, in real time, what happens to the rock as it goes from the solid to the molten state.

20. September 2012

Research on Phase Contrast Imaging awarded by the Dalle Molle Foundation

Marco Stampanoni, Head of the X-ray Tomography Group at SLS and Professor for X-ray Microscopy at Institute of Biomedical Engineering at the ETH Zürich, together with Dr Zhentian Wang (postdoc in Stampanoni’s team) receive this year's „Angelo Dalle Molle“ award of CHF 10,000. Their project „Noninvasive microcalcifications classification by X-ray phase contrast imaging and advanced imaging processing” focuses on innovative X-ray techniques and up-to-date image analysis, which are used e.g. for early breast cancer detection. The aim of the Dalle Molle Foundation for Quality of Life Contest is to promote innovative projects of general interest and of high scientific quality. Of primary importance are projects aiming at improving life quality, humanising production and using goods and services with a view to creating a balanced social system.

5. September 2012

New Insights into Superconducting Materials

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research Research Using Synchrotron Light

A new X-ray technique provides insights into the magnetic properties of atomically thin layers of a parent compound of a high-temperature superconductor. It turns out that the magnetic properties of material films which are only a few atoms thick differ by only a surprisingly small degree from those of macroscopically thick samples. In the future, this method can be used to study the processes occurring in very thin layers of superconductors and help us to understand this intriguing phenomenon.

29. August 2012

ERC Grant for the development of a new imaging method with high potential clinical impact

Marco Stampanoni, Assistant Professor for X-ray microscopy at the ETH Zürich and Head of the “X-ray Tomography Group” of the SLS has been recently awarded one of the coveted European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant for the project PhaseX: “Phase contrast X-ray imaging for medicine”. Marco Stampanoni’s project will be supported by the ERC with 1.5 million euros for the next 5 years. The highly competitive ERC Starting Grants are reserved for outstanding young research talents. With his team, Stampanoni has been working on the development of phase contrast X-ray imaging methods since several years. This technique can potentially revolutionize the radiological approach to medical imaging because it is intrinsically capable of detecting subtle differences in the electron density of soft tissue and of measuring the effective integrated local small-angle scattering power generated by the microscopic density fluctuations in a specimen. It goes therefore well beyond the conventional, absorption-based approach used daily in the clinical routine which usually lacks in contrast when imaging soft-tissue. Stampanoni’s ERC project aims at transferring this technique -- so far successfully and efficiently implemented exclusively on synchrotron -- to the clinical environment, with the final purpose to provide medical doctors a new, powerful diagnostic tool. A few preliminary applications of the method have been investigated in the field of mammography and Alzheimer research already.

3. July 2012

Controversy clarified: Why two insulators together can transport electricity

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research

How can two materials which do not conduct electricity create an electrically conducting layer when they are joined together? Since this effect was discovered in 2004, researchers have developed various hypotheses to answer this question. Now, an international team under the leadership of researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute has probably settled the controversy.

18. April 2012

Physicists observe the splitting of an electron inside a solid

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research Research Using Synchrotron Light

An electron has been observed to decay into two separate parts, each carrying a particular property of the electron: a spinon carrying its spin – the property making the electron behave as a tiny compass needle – and an orbiton carrying its orbital moment – which arises from the electron’s motion around the nucleus. These newly created particles, however, cannot leave the material in which they have been produced.

29. February 2012

Creating magnetism takes much longer than destroying it

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research Research Using Synchrotron Light

Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute are finding out how long it takes to establish magnetism and how this happens. Establishing a magnetically ordered phase in the metallic alloy iron-rhodium takes much longer than the reverse process of demagnetization. The result comes from basic research, but has relevance for the computer industry, as it shows which processes limit the speed of magnetic data storage and where improvements might be made.

7. February 2012

Using heat for storing data

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Synchrotron Light Materials Research

An international research team has demonstrated a new way to record information on a magnetic medium without the use of a magnetic field. Instead, they found that they could record information using only a heat pulse. This method of recording might allow one to record Terabytes (1000s of Gigabytes) of information per second being 100s of times faster than present hard drive technology, and consumes much less energy by using heat without the need for a magnetic field. Using modern lithographic methods and x-ray microscopy, researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute contributed considerably to this work.

23. January 2012

It works: Ultrafast magnetic processes observed ‘live’ using an X-ray laser

Media Releases Matter and Material SwissFEL SwissFEL Experiments Materials Research

In first-of-their-kind experiments performed at the American X-ray laser LCLS, a collaboration led by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute has been able to precisely follow how the magnetic structure of a material changes. The change of structure was initiated by a laser pulse, and investigated with the help of short X-ray pulses. It appears as if the structure begins to change 400 femtoseconds after the laser pulse strikes. Such investigations will be a major focus of research at the planned Swiss X-ray Laser, SwissFEL, at PSI.