Scientific Highlights

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Uniquely sharp X-ray view

Media Releases Research Using Synchrotron Light Materials Research SwissFEL Future Technologies

A new PSI method allows quantum-physical research on materials with the aid of X-ray lasers.

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Illustration of the crystal structure of (MA)PbBr3

Ultrafast diffuse x-ray scattering of a hybrid perovskite crystal

Organic–inorganic ‘hybrid’ perovskites have recently gained attention as a low-cost alternative to silicon solar cells. However, many properties of these materials are still poorly understood. In particular, how imperfections in the crystals, which can be both static or dynamic, affect energy transport remains unclear.

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Bernina status first summer shutdown

The summer shutdown was used to install more missing hardware. With the new components the Bernina instrument will be already very close to the full design capabilities when the exciting time of user experiments will begin in 2019.

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Figure 1 (a) Transient relative x-ray intensity of the (1.5 0.5 0.5) superlattice reflection of Sr0.97Ca0.03TiO3 upon above bandgap excitation with 40 fs pulses Inset: STO crystal structure as seen along the c-axis. phi measures the antiferrodistortive rotation of the oxygen octahedra (exaggerated) and represents the order parameter. (b) Calculated energy change per STO cubic unit cell as a function of oxygen displacement u/u0 along the in-plane cubic crystal axes resulting from the octahedral rotation at …

Moving Atoms by Photodoping

Understanding how and how fast we can drive atoms to create a structural phase transition is of fundamental interest as it directly relates to many processes in nature. Here we show that a photoexcitation can drive a purely structural phase transition before the energy is relaxed in the material that corresponds to a “warmer” equilibrated state.

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