Scientific Highlights
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.
Finalist of the Photronics Best Student Award
Ricarda Nebling, PhD student at LMN, received a prize at the SPIE Extreme Ultraviolet Conference 2020 for her contribution: “Effects of the illumination NA on EUV mask inspection with coherent diffraction imaging”.
BEATS Project
Mirjam van Daalen, chair of the BEATS Steering Committee
Multiphase magnetism in Yb2Ti2O7
Quantum materials have properties that defy conventional theories of solids. Explaining these unusual properties is a frontier in physics, which promises both technological applications and fundamentally new states of matter. Yb2Ti2O7 is a center of attention in this work. While it becomes ferromagnetic at very low temperature, its excitation spectrum resembles that of a quantum spin liquid. We show using neutron scattering ...
New element and speciation specific analytical options at AHL
The Hot Laboratory division (AHL) within PSI’s Nuclear Energy and Safety (NES) division continually upgrades and advances its analytical infrastructure to provide cutting-edge scientific service to PSI’s researchers and industrial customers. A new, fully automatable and highly flexible Ion Chromatograph (IC) furthers AHL’s efforts in sample miniaturization and extends the spectrum of destructive analytical capabilities to element and speciation specific analyses. With the new IC and its modern ICP-MS (Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) facilities, AHL offers innovative scientific options for nuclear and general research. Moreover, speciation analyses by IC-ICP-MS for polyvalent inorganic water pollutants such as Cr or As and the acquisition of a new ICP-OES system (Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry) enable future autonomy in wastewater management.
Aerosol distribution in rooms and the importance of proper ventilation
Urs Baltensperger explains the background why it is absolutely necessary to wear masks in order to reduce the risk of beeing infected with Covid-19.
In the following you find the presentation and summary
Post mortem/operando XPEEM: for studying the surface of single particle in Li-ion battery electrodes
X-ray photoemission electron microscopy (XPEEM) with its excellent spatial resolution is a well-suited technique to elucidate the complex electrode-electrolyte interface reactions in Li-ion batteries. It provides element-specific contrast images and enables the acquisition of local X-ray absorption spectra on single particles. Here we demonstrate the strength of post mortem measurements and we show the first electrochemical cell dedicated for operando experiments in all-solid-state batteries.
Atelier deliverable nr. D9.1 Draft released
Draft of the Deliverable nr. D9.1 on "Repository of Definitions of terms, key characteristics archetypes and a set of KPIS" for the H2020 Atelier project
Re(1−x)Mox as an ideal test case of time-reversal symmetry breaking in unconventional superconductors
Non-centrosymmetric superconductors (NCSCs) are promising candidates in the search for unconventional and topological superconductivity. The α-Mn-type rhenium-based alloys represent excellent examples of NCSCs, where spontaneous magneticfields, peculiar to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking, have been shown to develop in the superconducting phase. By converse, TRS is preserved in many other isostructural NCSCs, thus leaving the key question about its origin fully open. Here, we consider ...
COVID-19 - travel assistance websites launched
The Bio Nano spinout of Prof. Aeppli has launched new travel assistance websites that provide continually updated information on restrictions such as multi-day quarantines imposed on travel between countries, together with the latest pandemic predictions so that travellers can make informed decisions.