Scientific Highlights
First beam from the SwissFEL electron gun
The new 3 GHz photocathode gun will provide the electron bunches for SwissFEL and has recently been installed in the SwissFEL injector test facility. There, it replaced the CTF2-gun 5, borrowed from CERN. The new gun is capable now of operation with 100Hz repetition frequency and a higher field on cathode and improved field symmetry. After RF conditioning of about 4 days, the gun reached the nominal acceleration gradient of 100 MV/m at an input power of about 17 MW and pulse-width of 1 microsecond.
Muon Cooling: Longitudinal Compression
A 10 MeV/c positive muon beam was stopped in helium gas of a few mbar in a magnetic field of 5T. The muon 'swarm' has been efficiently compressed from a length of 16cm down to a few mm along the magnetic field axis (longitudinal compression) using electrostatic fields. The simulation reproduces the low energy interactions of slow muons in helium gas. Phase space compression occurs on the order of microseconds, compatible with the muon lifetime of 2μs. This paves the way for the preparation of a high- quality low-energy muon beam, with an increase in phase space density relative to a standard surface muon beam of 107. The achievable phase space compression by using only the longitudinal stage presented here is of the order of 104.
Understanding the μSR spectra of MnSi without magnetic polarons
Transverse-field muon-spin rotation (μSR) experiments were performed on a single crystal sample of the noncentrosymmetric system MnSi. The observed angular dependence of the muon precession frequencies matches perfectly the one of the Mn-dipolar fields acting on the muons stopping at a 4a position of the crystallographic structure. The data provide a precise determination of the magnetic dipolar tensor. In addition, we have calculated the shape of the field distribution expected below the magnetic transition temperature TC at the 4a muon site when no external magnetic field is applied.
Controlling Magnetic Order and Quantum Disorder in Molecule-Based Magnets
We investigate the structural and magnetic properties of two molecule-based magnets synthesized from the same starting components. Their different structural motifs promote contrasting exchange pathways and consequently lead to markedly different magnetic ground states. Through examination of their structural and magnetic properties we show that [Cu(pyz)(H2O)(gly)2](ClO4)2 may be considered a quasi-one- dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet whereas the related compound [Cu(pyz)(gly)](ClO4), which is formed from dimers of antiferromagnetically interacting Cu2+ spins, remains disordered down to at least 0.03 K in zero field but shows a field-temperature phase diagram reminiscent of that seen in materials showing a Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons.
On the protonation of water
Imaging photoelectron photoion coincidence (iPEPICO) spectroscopy on isolated water molecules and water dimers establishes a new route to determining the water proton affinity (PA) with unprecedented accuracy. A floating thermochemical cycle constructed from the OH+ and H3O+ appearance energies and three other spectroscopic values establishes the water PA as 683.22 ± 0.25 kJ mol−1 at 0 K, which converts to 688.81 ± 0.25 kJ mol−1 at room temperature.
Lattice-Site-Specific Spin Dynamics in Double Perovskite Sr2CoOsO6
Magnetic properties and spin dynamics have been studied for the structurally ordered double perovskite Sr2CoOsO6. Neutron diffraction, muon-spin relaxation, and ac-susceptibility measurements reveal two antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases on cooling from room temperature down to 2 K. In the first AFM phase, with transition temperature TN1=108K, cobalt (3d7, S=3/2) and osmium (5d2, S=1) moments fluctuate dynamically, while their average effective moments undergo long-range order. In the second AFM phase below TN2=67K, cobalt moments first become frozen and induce a noncollinear spin-canted AFM state, while dynamically fluctuating osmium moments are later frozen into a randomly canted state at T≈5K.
Chloroplast remodeling during state transitions in green algae
In oxygenic photosynthesis photochemical reactions occur in two different photosystems (PSs) and the light-energy conversion is regulated by balancing their activity. Such a power balance requires a sophisticated regulatory mechanism called state transitions, which involve reversible phosphorylation of the light-harvesting complex proteins (LHCIIs) to redistribute absorbed excitation energy between the two photosystems.
Quantum and classical criticality in a dimerised quantum antiferromagnet
A quantum critical point (QCP) is a singularity in the phase diagram arising due to quantum mechanical fluctuations. The exotic properties of some of the most enigmatic physical systems, including unconventional metals and superconductors, quantum magnets, and ultracold atomic condensates, have been related to the importance of the critical quantum and thermal fluctuations near such a point.
Spin-Nematic Interaction in the Multiferroic Compound Ba2CoGe2O7
We demonstrate the existence of the spin-nematic interactions in an easy-plane type antiferromagnet Ba2CoGe2O7 by exploring the magnetic anisotropy and spin dynamics. The combination of neutron scattering and magnetic susceptibility measurements reveals that the origin of the in-plane anisotropy is an antiferro-type interaction of the spin-nematic operator. The relation between the nematic operator and the electric polarization in the ligand symmetry of this compound is presented. The introduction of the spin-nematic interaction is useful to understand the physics of spin and electric dipole in multiferroic compounds.
Hydride ions in oxide hosts hidden by hydroxide ions
The true oxidation state of formally ‘H?-’ ions incorporated in an oxide host is frequently discussed in connection with chemical shifts of 1H nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, as they can exhibit values typically attributed to H+. Here we systematically investigate the link between geometrical structure and chemical shift of H- ?ions in an oxide host, mayenite, with a combination of experimental and ab initio approaches, in an attempt to resolve this issue.