Laboratory for Advanced Photonics (LAP)
The Laboratory for Advanced Photonics is responsible for the design and the realisation of novel schemes for Insertion Devices, Optics, Photon Diagnostics and Instrumentation for the Swiss Light Source (SLS) as well as for the Swiss X-ray Free Electron Laser (SwissFEL). In collaboration with other divisions of PSI, we coordinate new large photon science projects, such as the SLS upgrade (SLS 2.0) and the second beamline of SwissFEL Athos.
Latest Scientific Highlights and News
World Record: 7 nm Resolution in Scanning Soft X-ray Microscopy
During the past decade, scientists have put high effort to achieve sub-10 nm resolution in X-ray microscopy. Recent developments in high-resolution lithography-based diffractive optics, combined with the extreme stability and precision of the PolLux and HERMES scanning X-ray microscopes, resulted now in a so far unreached resolution of seven nanometers in scanning soft X-ray microscopy. Utilizing this highly precise microscopy technique with the X-ray magnetic circular dichroism effect, dimensionality effects in an ensemble of interacting magnetic nanoparticles can be revealed.
Two-color snapshots of ultrafast charge and spin dynamics
In a joint research effort, an international team of scientists lead by Emmanuelle Jal (Sorbonne Université) performed a time-resolved experiment at the FERMI free-electron laser to disclose the dynamic behavior of two magnetic element of a compount material in only one snapshot. The X-ray Optics and Applications group developed a dedicated optical element for this experiment that is usable with two different photon energies (colors) simultaneously.
First light in the SwissFEL Maloja endstation
The first endstation at the SwissFEL Athos soft X-ray branch is rapidly developing and on track for first experiments in 2021.
