SwissFel
05.01.2026
•Large research facilities
•8 min

Synchronising ultrashort X-ray pulses

Attosecond coherent pulses at SwissFEL will open new experimental possibilities

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C. Moselund
17.12.2025
•Future Technologies
•8 min

“Collaboration is particularly important in quantum research”

PSI researcher Kirsten Moselund talks about quantum technologies – about their importance and the current situation in Switzerland. And about her own research in the field of nanophotonics.

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From laser light to snowflake: This magnetic structure was created at PSI using an industrial laser
From laser light to snowflake: This magnetic structure was created at PSI using an industrial laser – not for decoration, but as a demonstration of precise material modification with potential for data storage, AI, and photonics. © Paul Scherrer Institute PSI / Aleš Hrabec, Lauren Riddiford, Jeffrey Brock
09.12.2025
•Future Technologies
•9 min

Laser draws made-to-order magnetic landscapes

Researchers at PSI have found a surprisingly inexpensive and fast method to make localised alterations in magnetic materials.

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One cubic millimetre of brain tissue contains about 100 000 neurons, connected through some 700 million synapses and 4 kilometres of ‘cabling’. This complex 3D wiring underlies brain function – yet is extraordinarily difficult to study.
One cubic millimetre of brain tissue contains about 100 000 neurons, connected through some 700 million synapses and 4 kilometres of ‘cabling’. This complex 3D wiring underlies brain function – yet is extraordinarily difficult to study. © Adobe Stock
28.11.2025
•Future Technologies
•9 min

X-rays bring high-resolution brain mapping within reach

A new imaging breakthrough could reveal brain connectivity in 3D detail never before accessible.

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PSI Center for Photon Science

The intense beams of X-ray light at the user facilities operated by the PSI Center for Photon Science shed light on the smallest structures of matter. 

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Sketch of reciprocal space showing regions where opposite-handed chiral phonons exist in LiNbO3, which can be probed by circularly polarized x-ray photons in a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering.
•Future Technologies

Chiral phonons in polar LiNbO3

Materials research

Resonant inelastic x-ray scattering reveals that lattice vibrations can be chiral in a polar material, with phonons having opposite handedness depending on their direction in momentum space.

Fig. 1: RIXS investigation of iridate/titanate heterostructures. (a) Representation of (SrIrO3)m(SrTiO3)1 superlattices grown on a (001)-oriented SrTiO3 single-crystal substrate. (b) Phase diagram of the (SrIrO3)m(SrTiO3)1 system, showing the bandwidth-controlled metal-insulator transition that occurs as the confinement increases from m = 3 to m = 2. (c) Intensity map of Ir L3-edge RIXS spectra for the m = 4 sample at T = 20 K, plotted as a function of energy transfer and momentum transfer Q. Two distinct e
•Future Technologies

Unravelling the coexistence of insulating and metallic-like excitations in SrIrO₃

A team led by researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI used resonant inelastic X-ray scattering to probe spin and charge fluctuations in atomically engineered SrIrO₃. The results revealed that insulator-like and metallic-like modes can simultaneously emerge in a correlated 5d semimetal, advancing the understanding of “strange metal” behaviour in spin–orbit coupled systems.

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