Scientific Highlights
Phonon spectroscopy reveals important details of geophysical relevant materials
Using inelastic x-ray scattering and parameter-free calculations the authors provide the first complete and fully consistent lattice dynamics description of MgSiO3-brigmanite, the main constituent of the Earth’s lower mantle and one of the most important Earth’s minerals.
Viscoelasticity Enhancement of Surfactant Solutions Depends on Molecular Conformation: Influence of Surfactant Headgroup Structure and Its Counterion
During the anisotropic growth from globular to wormlike micelles, the basic interactions among distinct parts of the surfactant monomer, its counterion, and additives are fundamental to tune molecular self-assembly. We investigate the addition of sodium salicylate (NaSal) to hexadecyltrimethylammonium chloride and bromide (CTAC and CTAB), 1-hexadecylpyridinium chloride and bromide (CPyCl and CPyBr), and benzyldimethylhexadecylammonium chloride (BDMC), which have the same hydrophobic tail.
Tailoring Novel Superconductivity
The band insulator strontium titanate SrTiO3 (STO), widely used as a substrate for growing oxide films, is a highly fascinating material. Recently, novel physical properties have been observed at the interface between STO and the materials grown on it. For instance the appearance of superconductivity above the temperature of liquid nitrogen, observed in a single monolayer of FeSe (its critical temperature is higher than in any iron-based bulk material) grown on the STO surface, suggests a key-role of the STO substrate.
Tailoring Novel Superconductivity
The Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements performed on 2DEL at STO surface revealed that, at low carrier density, electrons are always accompanied by a quantized dynamic lattice deformation. Together with the electron, these phonon-cloud formed a new composite quasiparticle called Fröhlich polaron.
Researchers find key to zinc rich plants to combat malnutrition
The diet in many developing countries is lacking zinc, but researchers have just solved the riddle of how to get more zinc into crop seeds. The discovery has been published in Nature Plants, and the research was led by University of Copenhagen.By Johanne Uhrenholt Kusnitzoff
Hard X-ray Photon Single-Shot Spectrometer of SwissFEL successfully delivered and installed
Not a joke: on 1st of April 2016 the Photon Single-Shot Spectrometer (PSSS) got delivered fully assembled and installed already to the front end of SwissFEL. It will measure the photon spectral information in every single shot for the Aramis beamline not only for the users, but also as a direct feedback to the machine during formation of the lasing process.
Watching lithium move in battery materials
In order to understand limitations in current battery materials and systematically engineer better ones, it is helpful to be able to directly visualize the lithium dynamics in materials during battery charge and discharge. Researchers at ETH Zurich and Paul Scherrer Institute have demonstrated a way to do this.
Observation of Weyl nodes and Fermi arcs in tantalum phosphide
A Weyl semimetal possesses spin-polarized band-crossings, called Weyl nodes, connected by topological surface arcs. The low-energy excitations near the crossing points behave the same as massless Weyl fermions, leading to exotic properties like chiral anomaly. To have the transport properties dominated by Weyl fermions, Weyl nodes need to locate nearly at the chemical potential and enclosed by pairs of individual Fermi surfaces with non-zero Fermi Chern numbers.
Towards hybrid pixel detectors for energy-dispersive or soft X-ray photon science
JUNGFRAU (adJUstiNg Gain detector FoR the SwissFEL Aramis User station) is a two dimensional hybrid pixel detector for photon science applications at free electron lasers and synchrotron light sources. The JUNGFRAU 0.4 prototype presented here is specifically geared towards low-noise performance and hence soft X-ray detection. With an extremely low noise of less than 30 electrons it enters a field formally reserved for SSD’s and CMOS imagers allowing single photon resolution down to a photon energy of 500eV.
Semifluorinated Alkanes at the Air–Water Interface: Tailoring Structure and Rheology at the Molecular Scale
Semifluorinated alkanes form monolayers with interesting properties at the air–water interface due to their pronounced amphi-solvophobic nature and the stiffness of the fluorocarbons. In the present work, using a combination of structural and dynamic probes, we investigated how small molecular changes can be used to control the properties of such an interface, in particular its organization, rheology, and reversibility during compression–expansion cycles.