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
No rose-coloured glasses here
Light is essential for life, and for researchers it is also a wonderful tool to better understand the structure of materials.
Uniquely sharp X-ray view
A new PSI method allows quantum-physical research on materials with the aid of X-ray lasers.
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.
