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Matter and Material

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The manifold characteristics of the matter making up the world around us are determined by what kinds of atoms they are made of, how these atoms are arranged, and how they move. Most researchers in the “Matter and Material” field at the Paul Scherrer Institute are trying to clarify the link between the internal structure and the observable properties of various materials. Researchers in the Laboratory for Particle Physics investigate the structure and properties of elementary particles – the smallest building blocks of matter –and are therefore addressing questions about the basic structures of the world.

Read more at: Matter and Material
21 December 2017

Power from nanomagnets

Media Releases Industrial co-operation Matter and Material Materials Research Micro- and Nanotechnology

Oles Sendetskyi, winner of a Founder Fellowship at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI, wants to use polarity reversal in nanomagnets to develop a sustainable power source for small devices.

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15 November 2017

Still no sign of dark matter

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons

No evidence of dark matter made of axions – result of an experiment at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI further constrains theories about the nature of dark matter.

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10 October 2017

From golden emperor to filled Buddha

Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons Research Using Synchrotron Light

Ancient metal objects are illuminated by neutrons at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI. This enables researchers to discover what is hidden inside them, how they were made and how they can be preserved.

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20 September 2017

X-ray and neutron imaging for palaeontologists and archaeologists

Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons Research Using Synchrotron Light

Federica Marone illuminates objects with high-intensity X-ray beams, Eberhard Lehmann with neutrons. Both have used their methods to give palaeontologists and archaeologists a new view into the past.

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14 September 2017
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The hard worker from Val Mesolcina

Matter and Material Research with muons Particle physics

For Aldo Antognini, physics and conviviality are in the bloodPSI researcher Aldo Antognini has received more than 2.2 million Swiss francs from the EU for his latest experiment. He wants to find out how magnetism is distributed in the proton. The particle physicist will be able to apply not only his scientific and technical talents, but his social flair as well.

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20 July 2017

Diving into magnets

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research Research Using Synchrotron Light

For the first time, scientists have made visible the directions of the magnetisation inside a 3D magnetic object. The smallest details in their visualisation were ten thousand times smaller than a millimetre. Among others, the magnetic structure contained one outstanding kind of pattern: magnetic singularities called Bloch points, which up to now were only known in theory.

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7 July 2017

Research experience from California benefits Swiss X-ray free-electron laser SwissFEL

Media Releases Large Research Facilities Matter and Material SwissFEL

An X-ray free-electron laser (XFEL) is capable of visualizing extremely fast structural and electronic processes. Pilot experiments will take place at the PSI's Swiss Free-Electron Laser (SwissFEL) from the end of 2017 on. Two current publications in Science and Nature Communications demonstrate the kind of outstanding scientific work that is enabled by such facilities. The work was carried out at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) in California. Two of the leading authors behind these studies have now relocated to the PSI in order to share their expertise as SwissFEL expands its capabilities.

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29 June 2017

Fuel and chemicals from plant waste

Media Releases Research Using Synchrotron Light Materials Research Matter and Material Energy and Environment

Lignin, as a constituent of many plants, accumulates in large quantities and could theoretically be used as a precursor material for production of fuels and chemicals. Researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI and ETH Zurich have developed a method with which the processes that take place in the catalytic breakdown of lignin can be observed in detail. The knowledge thus gained could enable targeted improvement of production methods in the future.

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18 April 2017

Successful for 20 years: Probing materials with particles

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons Large Research Facilities

Whether they study materials for the electronics of the future, batteries, or swords from the Bronze Age — for 20 years researchers from a range of disciplines have been using the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source SINQ of the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI for their investigations. At a symposium on 18 April, researchers looked back on the facility's successes and presented plans for modernisation.

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16 March 2017

3-D X-ray imaging makes the finest details of a computer chip visible

Media Releases Materials Research Micro- and Nanotechnology Matter and Material Research Using Synchrotron Light

Researchers at the PSI have made detailed 3-D X-ray images of a commercially available computer chip. In their experiment, they examined a small piece that they had cut out of the chip beforehand. This sample remained undamaged throughout the measurement. It is a major challenge for manufacturers to determine if, in the end, the structure of their chips conforms to the specifications. Thus these results represent one important application of an X-ray tomography method that the PSI researchers have been developing for several years.

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16 December 2016

Towards energy-saving data storage

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons

A new material could become the basis for future data storage devices, since it may enable significant reductions in energy demands in comparison to present-day hard drives. It is a material from the class of so-called magnetoelectric multiferroics, exhibiting the necessary magnetic properties even at room temperature.

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24 October 2016
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Under the chemical microscope

Research Using Synchrotron Light Matter and Material

Interview with Daniel GrolimundAt the Swiss Light Source SLS, researcher Daniel Grolimund is responsible for a beamline where the arrangement of chemical bonds in different objects can be determined. These capabilities prove valuable to researchers in the most diverse disciplines: to battery researchers as well as biologists, archeologists, and many more. In this interview Grolimund talks about the variety of topics and the challenges that come with this diversity.

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11 October 2016

Selectively conductive or insulating

Media Releases Matter and Material Materials Research Research Using Synchrotron Light

The material neodymium nickel oxide is either a metal or an insulator, depending on its temperature. The possibility to control this transition electrically makes the material a potential candidate for transistors in modern electronic devices. By means of a sophisticated development of X-ray scattering, researchers at the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI have now been able to track down the cause of this transition: electrons around the oxygen atoms are rearranging.

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5 October 2016

Physicists at the PSI’s large-scale research facilities are thinking beyond the Nobel Prize theories

Miscellaneous Large Research Facilities Materials Research Matter and Material

This year’s Nobel Prize for Physics goes to David Thouless, Duncan Haldane, and Michael Kosterlitz. The Academy also cited, in its background report, experiments carried out by Michel Kenzelmann, who today is a laboratory head at the PSI. He and other researchers at the PSI continue to do experiments based on the theories now honoured by the Nobel Prize.

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4 October 2016

ERC funding of €2.4 million for research on fundamental interactions in magnets

Media Releases Research Using Neutrons Matter and Material

Christian Rüegg has been awarded a prestigious Consolidator Grant from the European Research Council (ERC). With this funding he will continue to investigate how the smallest magnetic building blocks of matter interact.

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6 September 2016

En route to better transformers

Media Releases Matter and Material Research Using Neutrons

Thanks to an ultramodern research method, scientists have successfully looked inside transformers and observed the magnetic domains at work in the interior of a transformer’s iron core. Transformers are indispensable in regulating electricity both in industry and in domestic households. The current research results show that the new examination method can be profitably applied to develop more efficient transformers.

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12 August 2016
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The deuteron too poses a mystery

Media Releases Matter and Material Research with muons

The deuteron — just like the proton — is smaller than previously thoughtThe deuteron — one of the simplest atomic nuclei, consisting of just one proton and one neutron — is considerably smaller than previously thought. This new research finding fits with a 2010 study in which, similarly, the proton was measured at the Paul Scherrer Institute and, likewise, a smaller value than expected was found. The result from 2010 formed the basis for what has been known since then as the proton radius puzzle.

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18 July 2016

Hitching a ride to gamma-ray bursts

Media Releases Matter and Material

Researchers at the PSI have developed a detector called POLAR. It is designed to search out and investigate extreme eruptions of energy from the depths of the universe. This coming September, POLAR will be launched into orbit with a Chinese space mission.

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9 June 2016

One atom at a time

Matter and Material

At the PSI, the Heavy Elements Research Group explores the exotic, unstable atoms at the end of the periodic table of elements. The dream: to discover one day the island of stability that could exist beyond the elements charted so far on the chemists' map.

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30 May 2016
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Zebra - a new instrument for the PSI

Research Using Neutrons Large Research Facilities Matter and Material

Interview with Oksana ZaharkoNew scientific questions demand ever better experimental equipment. In this interview, PSI researcher Oksana Zaharko reports on the challenges of setting up a new instrument for research with neutrons.

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5232 Ausgabe 3 2020

5232 — Das Magazin des Paul Scherrer Instituts

03/2020
in German
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