Skip to main content
  • Paul Scherrer Institut PSI
  • PSI Research, Labs & User Services

Digital User Office

  • Digital User Office
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)
Suche
Paul Scherrer Institut (PSI)

Hauptnavigation

  • Research at PSIOpen mainmenu item
    • Research on Covid-19
    • Research Initiatives
    • Ethics and Research integrity
    • Scientific Highlights
    • Scientific Events
    • Scientific Career
    • PSI-FELLOW
    • PSI Data Policy
  • Research Divisions and LabsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Research with Neutrons and Muons
    • Photon Science
    • Energy and Environment
    • Nuclear Energy and Safety
    • Biology and Chemistry
    • Scientific Computing, Theory and Data
    • Large Research Facilities
  • Facilities and InstrumentsOpen mainmenu item
    • Overview
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Facilities
    • PSI Facility Newsletter
  • PSI User ServicesOpen mainmenu item
    • User Office
    • Methods at the PSI User Facilities
    • Proposals for beam time
    • Proposal Deadlines
    • Data Analysis Service (PSD)
    • EU support programmes
  • New ProjectsOpen mainmenu item
    • SLS 2.0
    • IMPACT
  • DE
  • EN
  • FR

Digital User Office (mobile)

  • Digital User Office

You are here:

  1. PSI Home
  2. Labs & User Services
  3. Scientific Highlights

Secondary navigation

Labs & User Services

  • Research at PSI
  • Research Divisions and Labs
  • Facilities and Instruments
    • Large Research Facilities
    • Facilities
  • PSI User Labs
    • Methods and scopes of the Large Research Facilities
    • Proposals for beamtime
    • Proposal Deadlines
    • EU support programmes
    • Data Analysis Service
    • PSI Facility Newsletter
  • Research Initiatives
  • Scientific Highlights Expanded submenu item
    • NUM Highlights
    • PSD Highlights
    • BIO Highlights
    • ENE Highlights
    • NES Highlights
    • SCD Highlights
    • GFA Highlights
    • Scientific Reports
  • Scientific Events
  • Scientific Career
    • PSI-FELLOW
    • PSI Career Return Program
  • PSI Data Policy
  • Useful links

  • Useroffice
  • Digital User Office (DUO)
  • Accelerator status
  • PSIGuesthouse
  • Lib4RI
  • Ethics and Research integrity

Scientific Highlights

Toggle filters
Datum
19 April 2022
Alpert_Peter_Highlight_Science

Light amplification accelerates chemical reactions in aerosols

Together with colleagues at ETH Zürich, Peter Alpert and Markus Ammann have directly imaged where light was amplified and where it was not inside photochemically active particles using X-ray spectromicroscopy.

Read more
19 April 2022
John et al

Reconfigurable halide perovskite nanocrystal memristors for neuromorphic computing

Many in-memory computing frameworks demand electronic devices with specific switching characteristics to achieve the desired level of computational complexity. Existing memristive devices cannot be reconfigured to meet the diverse volatile and non-volatile switching requirements, and hence rely on tailored material designs specific to the targeted application, limiting their universality. “Reconfigurable memristors” that combine both ionic diffusive and drift mechanisms could address these limitations, but they remain elusive. Here we present a reconfigurable halide perovskite nanocrystal memristor that achieves on-demand switching between diffusive/volatile and drift/non-volatile modes by controllable electrochemical reactions.

 

Read more
12 April 2022
First combined Plasma and Gas Source Mass Spectrometer for alternate isotope and element ratio Analyses of Solids, Liquids, and Gases

MC-EBIS-ICP-MS – a unique dual Ion Source Mass Spectrometer

This highlight presents a successful, in-house developed integration of an Electron Beam Ion Source (EBIS) able to ionize gases to high charge states with a customized commercial MC-ICP-MS. The successful joining of the two ion flight paths is a milestone towards comprehensive routine analyses of solids, liquids, and gases using THE SAME MASS SPECTROMETER, the latter analyses free from atmospheric contamination. After implementation of an introduction system for gas mass spectrometry, routine analyses will comprise isotope ratio and relative abundance determinations of fission gases in used nuclear fuel. In addition to the unique versatility of the MC-EBIS-ICP-MS, inclusion of the EBIS furthers opens the little-studied field of mass spectrometry of highly charged ions.

Read more
11 April 2022
Al3(Sc,Zr)

Thermal and phase evolution during laser powder bed fusion of Al-Sc-Zr elemental powder blends

The reaction of elemental scandium and zirconium powders with liquid aluminum is observed directly via operando X-ray diffraction during laser 3D printing. This work demonstrates that elemental blends can be used to create fine-grained crack-free Al-alloys and highlights the importance of feature size.

Read more
11 April 2022
Phase Diagram YBCuFO Weak FM linked spiral phase

Weak ferromagnetism linked to the high-temperature spiral phase of YBaCuFeO5

The layered perovskite YBaCuFeO5 is a rare example of a cycloidal spiral magnet whose ordering temperature Tspiral can be tuned far beyond room temperature by adjusting the degree of Cu2+/ Fe3+ chemical disorder in the structure. This unusual property qualifies this material as one of the most promising spin-driven multiferroic candidates. However, very little is known about the response of the spiral to magnetic fields, crucial for magnetoelectric cross-control applications. Using bulk magnetization and neutron powder diffraction measurements under magnetic fields up to 9 T, we report here a temperature-magnetic field phase diagram of this material. Besides revealing a strong stability of the spiral state, our data uncover the presence of weak ferromagnetism coexisting with the spiral modulation. Since ferromagnets can be easily manipulated with magnetic fields, this observation opens new perspectives for the control of the spiral orientation, directly linked to the polarization direction, as well as for a possible future use of this material in technological applications.

Read more
8 April 2022
toc_nl_trlamni_.gif

Into the fourth dimension: time-resolved soft X-ray laminography

Combining time-resolved soft X-ray STXM imaging with magnetic laminography, researchers were able to investigate magnetization dynamics in a ferromagnetic microstructure resolved in all three spatial dimensions and in time. Thanks to the possibility of freely selecting the frequency of the excitation applied to the magnetic element, this technique opens the possibility to investigate resonant magneto-dynamical processes, such as e.g. magnetic vortex core gyration and switching, and spinwave emission.

Read more
7 April 2022
Water vapor nucleation at ZnO2 interface

Deciphering the molecular mechanism of water boiling at heterogeneous interfaces

Water boiling control evolution of natural geothermal systems is widely exploited in industrial processes due to the unique non-linear thermophysical behavior. Even though the properties of water both in the liquid and gas state have been extensively studied experimentally and by numerical simulations, there is still a fundamental knowledge gap in understanding the mechanism of the heterogeneous nucleate boiling controlling evaporation and condensation. In this study, the molecular mechanism of bubble nucleation at the hydrophilic and hydrophobic solid–water interface was determined by performing unbiased molecular dynamics simulations using the transition path sampling scheme. Analyzing the liquid to vapor transition path, the initiation of small void cavities (vapor bubbles nuclei) and their subsequent merging mechanism, leading to successively growing vacuum domains (vapor phase), has been elucidated. The simulations reveal the impact of the surface functionality on the adsorbed thin water molecules film structuring and the location of high probability nucleation sites.

Read more
4 April 2022
Wang et al

Uniaxial pressure induced stripe order rotation in La1.88Sr0.12CuO4

Static stripe order is detrimental to superconductivity. Yet, it has been proposed that transverse stripe fluctuations may enhance the inter-stripe Josephson coupling and thus promote superconductivity. Direct experimental studies of stripe dynamics, however, remain difficult. From a strong-coupling perspective, transverse stripe fluctuations are realized in the form of dynamic “kinks”—sideways shifting stripe sections. Here, we show how modest uniaxial pressure tuning reorganizes directional kink alignment.

 

Read more
30 March 2022
Takagi et al

Square and rhombic lattices of magnetic skyrmions in a centrosymmetric binary compound

Magnetic skyrmions are topologically stable swirling spin textures with particle-like char- acter, and have been intensively studied as a candidate of high-density information bit. While magnetic skyrmions were originally discovered in noncentrosymmetric systems with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction, recently a nanometric skyrmion lattice has also been reported for centrosymmetric rare-earth compounds, such as Gd2PdSi3 and GdRu2Si2. For the latter systems, a distinct skyrmion formation mechanism mediated by itinerant electrons has been proposed, and the search of a simpler model system allowing for a better understanding of their intricate magnetic phase diagram is highly demanded. Here, we report the discovery of square and rhombic lattices of nanometric skyrmions in a centrosymmetric binary compound EuAl4, by performing small-angle neutron and resonant elastic X-ray scattering experiments.

Read more
28 March 2022
Hercules School 2022 group photo

Hercules School 2022

PSI hosted again the Hercules School in March 2022. We had the pleasure to welcome 20 international PhD students, PostDocs and scientists to demonstrate our state-of-the-art techniques and methodologies at our large scale facilities, the Swiss Light Source (SLS), the Swiss Spallation Neutron Source (SINQ) and our free electron laser SwissFEL.

Read more
  • First page « First
  • Previous page ‹‹
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • …
  • Next page ››
  • Last page Last »

Sidebar

PSI Scientific Reports

Archive 2006-2012. The Scientific Reports – containing accounts of research topics from all the different areas – provide an impression of the variety of subjects researched at PSI.

top

Footer

Paul Scherrer Institut

Forschungsstrasse 111
5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland

Telephone: +41 56 310 21 11
Telefax: +41 56 310 21 99

How to find us
Contact

Visitor Centre psi forum
School Lab iLab (in German)
Center for Proton Therapy
PSI Education Centre
PSI Guest House
PSI Gastronomie (in German)
psi forum shop

Service & Support

  • Phone Book
  • User Office
  • Accelerator Status
  • PSI Publications
  • Suppliers
  • E-Billing
  • Computing
  • Safety (in German)

Career

  • Working at PSI
  • Job Opportunities
  • Training and further education
  • Vocational Training (in German)
  • PSI Education Center

For the media

  • PSI in brief
  • Facts and Figures
  • Media corner
  • Media Releases
  • Social Media

Follow us: Twitter (in English) LinkedIn Youtube Issuu RSS

Footer legal

  • Imprint
  • Terms and Conditions
  • Editors' login