Scientific Highlights: Research Division "Photon Science"
Element-Specific X-Ray Phase Tomography of 3D Structures at the Nanoscale
Recent advances in fabrication techniques to create mesoscopic 3D structures have led to significant developments in a variety of fields including biology, photonics, and magnetism. Further progress in these areas benefits from their full quantitative and structural characterization.
Nanoscale switch for vortex polarization mediated by Bloch core formation in magnetic hybrid systems
Vortices are fundamental magnetic topological structures characterized by a curling magnetization around a highly stable nanometric core.
Correlating the Core-Shell Composition and the Surface Structure to the Magnetic Properties for Magnetite-Maghemite Nanoparticles in the 5-15 nm Range
Very small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized by innovative synchrotron X-ray total scattering methods and Debye function analysis, developed at the X04SA Materials Science beamline of SLS.
Seven nanometres for the electronics of the future
Researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute have succeeded in creating regular patterns in a semiconductor material that are sixteen times smaller than in today’s computer chips. As a result, they have taken an important step closer towards even smaller computer components. Industry envisages structures on this scale as the standard for the year 2028.
Reduction of Mn19 Coordination Clusters on a Gold Surface
The surface-induced changes of the oxidation state and magnetic properties of Mn ion clusters have been probed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism.
Concept of a multichannel spin-resolving electron analyzer based on Mott scattering
The spin of electron plays a crucial role in many physical phenomena, ranging from the obvious example of magnetism, via novel materials for spintronics applications, to high-temperature superconductivity. Spin- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (SARPES) gives the most direct access to the spin aspects of the electronic structure, but the one-channel detection principle of all presently available SARPES spectrometers severely limits their efficiency. A team of Swiss and Russian scientists has developed a revolutionary concept of a multichannel electron spin detector based on Mott scattering as the spin selective process and imaging-type electron optics.
Fermi Surface of Three-Dimensional La1−xSrxMnO3 Explored by Soft-X-Ray ARPES: Rhombohedral Lattice Distortion and its Effect on Magnetoresistance
A research team led by scientists from the Swiss Light Source has for the first time established three-dimensional (3D) electronic structure of the perovskite compound La1−xSrxMnO3 connected with its colossal magnetoresistance. Instrumental for this study has been the use of the new experimental technique of soft-x-ray ARPES, available at the ADRESS beamline, with its intrinsically sharp definition of 3D electron momentum.
Together, not alone
Decoding biomolecules at SwissFEL and SLSProteins are a coveted but stubborn research object. A method developed for x-ray free-electron lasers and PSI’s future SwissFEL should now help researchers to make good headway in this field. It involves x-raying many small, identical protein samples consecutively at short intervals, thereby avoiding the main problem that protein research has faced thus far: producing samples in a sufficient size.
From inside an eggshell
Tiny cavities inside eggshells supply the materials that stimulate and control the shell’s growth. Using a novel imaging technique, researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), ETH Zurich and the Dutch FOM Institute AMOLF have succeeded in depicting these voids in 3D for the first time. In doing so, they lift an old limitation of tomographic images and hope that one day medicine will also benefit from their method.