News & Scientific Highlights

SwissFEL user

SwissFEL call for proposals I-26 is open

The call for SwissFEL proposals I-26 is open.

octahedra rotation

Short x-ray pulses reveal the source of light-induced ferroelectricity

Ultrafast measurements of the fluctuating atomic positions in the quantum paraelectric SrTiO3 after mid-infrared light excitation, reveal details about the creation of the material’s ferroelectric state.

Gas Attenuators

A compact gas attenuator for the SwissFEL ATHOS beamline realized using additive manufacturing

Gas attenuators are important devices providing accurate variation of photon intensity for soft X-ray beamlines. In the SwissFEL ATHOS beamline front-end the space is very limited and an innovative approach has been taken to provide attenuation of three orders of magnitude up to an energy of 1200 eV. Additive manufacturing of a differential pumping system vacuum manifold allowed a triple pumping stage to be realized in a space of less than half a meter. Measurements have shown that the response of the device is as expected from theoretical calculations.

Hercules 20223

The Hercules School visits PSI

20 international students visited PSI as part of the renowned Hercules School to learn about our state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies at our large scale facilities.

ultrafast diffraction scheme

Strong modulation of carrier effective mass in WTe2 via coherent lattice manipulation

Schematic ultrafast surface diffraction setup used for monitoring the crystal lattice in multiple directions.

Hercules School 2022 group photo

Hercules School 2022

PSI hosted again the Hercules School in March 2022. We had the pleasure to welcome 20 international PhD students, PostDocs and scientists to demonstrate our state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies at our large scale facilities, the Swiss Light Source (SLS), the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ) and our free electron laser SwissFEL.

COVID call

Priority access call for work on combating COVID-19 continues

On January 30th, 2020, the WHO declared the recent outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a public health emergency of international concern. It declared that there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the newly identified virus and its possible future evolution as well as to contain the spread; to develop precise diagnostics and treatment, and to improve the public health response and patient care.

The COVID priority access call continues and is still open in 2022.

Supercooled liquid water Xray structure factor

Anomalous temperature dependence of the experimental x-ray structure factor of supercooled water

Supercooled water scattering signals show an anolmalous structure factor temperature dependence suggesting decreasing density at lowering temperatures below 236 K (-37°C).